The Senate just voted 67-28 for cloture on New START. This ends debate on the treaty and means a final vote is likely tomorrow. 11 Republicans voted for cloture and in a press conference after the vote, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) said three other senators Judd Gregg (R-NH), Evan Bayh (D-IN), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) are all for the treaty. Senator Kerry remarked, “In today’s Senate, 70 votes is yesterday’s 95.”

With the support of Senator Gregg that would mean 12 Republicans look set to vote for the treaty. This means more than a quarter of the Republican caucus broke with the Senate Republican leadership, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ), both of whom came out strongly against the treaty this past Sunday. The vote is a big blow to the leadership, especially to Senator Kyl, who was long seen as the Republican point man on the treaty. Kyl even held a desperate press conference today in one last attempt to whip his own party, prompting Josh Rogin to report:

Everyone here on Capitol Hill is beginning to see the ratification of New START as increasingly inevitable — everyone, that is, except for Sen. Jon Kyl.

Senator Lindsey Graham was so outraged that Republican Senators would side with Richard Lugar (R-IN), instead of Kyl, that in a press conference today, Graham actually apologized to Kyl on behalf of his Republican colleagues:

To Senator Kyl, I want to apologize to you for the way you’ve been treated by your colleagues.

Greg Sargent at the Washington Post rebuked Graham:

Senators who are voting to ratify New START because they believe it’s the right thing to do should feel apologetic to Kyl for defying his wishes, even though the evidence is overwhelming that Kyl’s objections have been thoroughly addressed? Yeah, right: It’s an absolute outrage that these Senators are prioritizing their own sense of what’s right for the country and the world, over the influence, standing and fragile ego of a single fellow Senator.

Back in 2003, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) sponsored S.1545 — the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Back then, the bill attracted co-sponsors like Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John McCain (R-AZ), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Sam Brownback (R-KS). All of those Republican senators voted against a more conservative version of the same bill this past Saturday. Hatch simply didn’t bother to show up.

Yet, Hatch couldn’t just leave it at that. The Deseret News reports:

Sen. Orrin Hatch said he skipped a vote on the failed DREAM Act over the weekend because it was a “cynical exercise in political charades” by the Senate’s Democratic leadership. [...]

“The American people sent a clear message in the November elections that they want Congress to focus on getting the economy moving,” he said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, Senate majority leaders have opted instead to move ahead with show votes aimed at currying favor with their far left political constituencies.”

The Deseret News also notes that, as recently as this past summer, Hatch was singing a much different tune. On July 7, the senator expressed his support of the DREAM Act at a town hall meeting, saying, “A lot of these kids are brought in as infants. They don’t even know that they’re not citizens until they graduate from high school…If they’ve lived good lives and they’ve done good things, why would we penalize them and not let them at least go to school?”

Hatch now claims his remarks were taken out of context.

Hatch’s flip-flop may have something to do with the fact that he’s up for reelection in 2012 and has already been identified as the tea party’s next target.

The other Republican senator from Utah, Bob Bennett, was one of three Republicans who voted in support of the DREAM Act on Saturday. He will be leaving the Senate after being stripped of his party’s nomination earlier this year by a tea party candidate.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the third highest ranking Republican, stated on the floor of the Senate this morning that he would vote to ratify the New START treaty. In supporting START, Alexander did not just issue a one-line statement. Instead, he fully justified his vote and in doing so obliterated many of the GOP talking points used against the treaty.

I will vote to ratify the New START treaty…because it leaves our country with enough nuclear warheads to blow any attacker to kingdom come. … I will vote for the treaty because it allows for inspection of Russian warheads and because our military leaders say there is nothing to interfere with the development of a missile defense system. I will vote for the treaty because the last six Republican Secretaries of State support its ratification. In short, I am convinced that Americans are safer and more secure with the New START treaty than without it.

Watch it:

Alexander’s decision to support New START should ensure that there are at least nine Republican votes for the treaty, therefore guaranteeing ratification. The vote may come later this afternoon.

His endorsement is quite a blow to Senate GOP leaders Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl, who both came out strongly in opposition to the treaty on Sunday. The statements of McConnell and Kyl led to a wave of pessimism about START’s prospects, as no arms control treaty has passed without the support of the minority leader. Yet just 24 hours later, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) said he would support the treaty and Sens. Judd Gregg (R-NH), Thad Cochran (R-MS), and Bob Corker (R-TN), who voted for the treaty in committee, indicated they were likely to vote for START.

Rich Lowry of the National Review writes, “Republican opposition to New START is collapsing. One Senate source just told me the vote for ratification could go as high as 75… This is a dismaying rout.”