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Senate GOP leader says deal will be reached. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said at a press conference Tuesday that he would soon have an agreement with Sen. Jim Bunning
(R-Ky.) to allow a vote on a bill providing a 30 day extension of
enhanced unemployment benefits and subsidized health insurance for laid
off workers, among other things.

"We're going to be able to work out a short term extension in the very near future as we're in the process of working on that now," said McConnell. He declined to elaborate, but according to ABCNews,
Bunning will agree to allow a vote on the bill in exchange for a vote
on an amendment to offset the bill's $10 billion price tag, a deal
Bunning previously rejected because the amendment will fail.

According to the National Employment Law Project, 200,000 people will prematurely lose eligibility for extended benefits this week alone. It wouldn't happen if Bunning had not objected to a "unanimous consent" motion for a vote on the bill
last Thursday.

Bunning has objected a dozen times since then, even when fellow Republican Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) asked for a vote on the bill on Tuesday morning.

A reporter asked why McConnell, the leader of Republicans in the Senate, has been absent from the Senate floor throughout Bunning's epic block of the bill. A handful of Republicans have praised Bunning, but
his fellow Kentuckian McConnell has remained conspicuously silent. He
dodged the question.

"We're working on this issue," said McConnell.

So do you agree with Bunning?

"We're in the process of working this out," he said.

-- ARTHUR DELANEY

3:32 PM ET -- Tea Partiers love Bunning, Mother Jones reports. "We're all in support of Sen. Bunning," says Wendy Caswell, the founder of the Louisville Tea Party.

3:09 PM ET -- Bunning: Hill security 'doing a lousy job' protecting me from reporters. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) wants better protection from Hill reporters in and around Senate-only elevators.

As he boarded an elevator after leaving the Senate floor on Tuesday, reporters asked about his conversation with the Senate Sergeant at Arms. What were they talking about?

"Oh, about being harassed on the elevators," he said.

When ABCNews tried to ask him about his hold on legislation that among other things would extend enhanced unemployment benefits for laid off workers, Bunning became
enraged that a reporter would violate the sanctity of the elevator.

"Excuse me! This is a Senators-only elevator!" yelled a steamed Bunning. "Excuse me!"

On Tuesday, Bunning seemed to be joking. He said the Sergeant at Arms, which oversees all security on the Hill, was just checking in with him.

"He was asking about how they were doing, about how the Sergeant at Arms' office was doing," Bunning explained. "I said they were doing a lousy job."

And then the door closed, and down went Bunning.

-- ARTHUR DELANEY

2:03 PM ET -- New comments from Bunning. Via The Hill:

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) suggested Tuesday afternoon that his block on an emergency benefits bill may be nearing an end.

Bunning told reporters that he may drop his objections to a bill extending unemployment benefits and COBRA health plan subsidies "as
soon as possible," possibly meaning today.

"We're working on it," Bunning told reporters in a video captured by ABC News.

1:35 PM ET -- Hits on Bunning keep coming. Here's a new video blasted out by Americans United for Change, an advocacy group
aligned with the Democratic congressional leadership. The spot, titled
"Beanbag Bunning," plays off the Senator's previous career as a major
league pitcher.


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1:15 PM ET -- CongressDaily: Deal with Bunning is near. "GOP senators and aides said today the Senate is near a deal that would overcome an objection by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., to extending a series
of expired provisions, including unemployment insurance, without paying
for them," CongressDaily reports (subscription required). "Sen. Judd
Gregg, R-N.H., said he believed there is an agreement in which Bunning
would get a vote on his proposed pay-for to cover the cost of the bill,
after which he would allow a quick vote to allow 30-day extensions of
the programs. But a senior GOP aide said the deal was not yet
finalized. Bunning previously rejected such an arrangement."

1:10 PM ET -- Bunning's homestate paper slams his 'callous grandstanding.' The Lexington Herald-Leader published a scathing editorial today taking on both Bunning and the two Republicans aiming to replace him this November (who both have supported his efforts):

As long as Republicans were in charge, Sen. Jim Bunning was OK with trading a surplus for a deficit. He voted to put two wars, tax cuts and a Medicare drug benefit on the nation's credit card.

Now that Republicans are no longer in charge, Bunning is drawing the line on deficit spending. He's doing it in a way that shows callous contempt for the more than one in 10 working Kentuckians whose
jobs disappeared in the economic meltdown.

We've become accustomed to bizarre, egocentric behavior from Bunning. So it wasn't all that surprising when he single-handedly blocked an unemployment benefits extension for a million people,
including 119,230 in Kentucky, whose benefits run out this year. About
14,000 Kentuckians will exhaust their benefits in two weeks without the
extension.

Bunning's filibuster also denies newly laid-off workers help paying for health insurance. It halts road and bridge projects around the country by furloughing 2,000 federal transportation employees, stops
reimbursements to state highway programs and cuts Medicare payments to
doctors.

To those who know him, it's not surprising that Bunning answered a Democratic colleague's complaint with a crude profanity. Or that he joked about missing a basketball game while pushing some unemployed
Kentuckians into homelessness or bankruptcy.

What is surprising is that Trey Grayson and Rand Paul, the leading Republicans to succeed Bunning, jumped on his one-man band wagon.

1:09 PM ET -- Bunning's block impacts KY Sen race. MSNBC's Mark Murray reports, "GOP Sen. Jim Bunning blocking the extension of unemployment insurance and transportation spending has now spilled over to the Senate race to
succeed him."

Democrat Jack Conway, who's running to replace the retiring Bunning, has issued a petition demanding that Bunning end his blockage.

Conway is competing against Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo in the Democratic primary, and Mongiardo also has criticized Bunning here. The Republicans in the race are Rand Paul (Ron Paul's son) and Kentucky
Secretary of State Trey Grayson, and both are supporting Bunning's
block.

1:01 PM ET -- National Flood Insurance Program expires due to Bunning block.

The National Flood Insurance Program expired Sunday night after Congress failed to pass a temporary extension of the program that is vital to protecting homes in the New Orleans area.

The lapse puts home sales at risk and could leave homeowners whose policies were scheduled to renew March 1 in jeopardy in the unlikely
event that Monday's rains turned out to be heavy enough to cause
flooding.

12:14 PM ET -- Obama to take on Bunning. "White House aides are saying there's a 'strong possibility' President Obama will take on Sen. Jim Bunning during the president's 1230 p.m. ET economic remarks at Savannah Technical College."

12:11 PM ET -- Bunning has another run-in with journalist. CNN's Dana Bash "again tried to get Bunning to comment more extensively on the controversy but the senator emphatically declined."

11:10 AM -- Bunning again blocks jobless benefits. Sen. Jim Bunning has again blocked the Senate from extending unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for the jobless.

The Kentucky Republican objected Tuesday to a request by Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a fellow Republican, to pass a 30-day extension of jobless benefits and other expired measures. The measure would also
extend highway programs and prevent a big cut in Medicare payments to
doctors.

Bunning has been single-handedly blocking the stopgap legislation since Thursday, to the increasing discomfort of Republicans like Collins. Frustrated Democrats have been lobbing attacks at Bunning and
his fellow Republicans for days.

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