The vastly-Democratic U.S. Senate is having a hard time allocating the remaining $410 billion of last year's last-minute omnibus spending bill because… well, because they're Democrats…

The Senate stalled on the omnibus Thursday night when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) came up short of the 60 votes he needed to move the bill forward.

That led to an "ugly" late-night, closed-door meeting between Reid, Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — aides in the hall heard yelling and swearing — and it has fanned House Democrats’ anger over Rei'’s inability to move bills without granting major concessions to marginal members of both parties.

"We're always frustrated with the Senate," House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Friday. The rejoinder from Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), a suddenly powerful centrist who helped strip the House stimulus bill of billions: "I've said all along, the House needs to learn how to count the votes in the Senate." Reid's own vote count came up short Thursday night.

Now, you might not think that counting to 60 is particularly difficult. But, you gotta remember, these are not professional mathematicians we're talking about here.

To count all the way up to sixty, you've got to convince at least three congresspeople to take off their shoes and socks so that you can use all their toes as well as fingers.

And, as you know, you can't convince a full three Democratic congresspeople to do any one thing.