BURR & DOLE TO WORKERS: EAT S**T AND DIE

Last night, senators Dick Burr and Liddy Dole joined 41 other Republicans to block cloture on the minimum wage bill ... thus allowing a Republican filibuster to kill the first increase in federal minimum-wage levels in almost 10 years.

A handful of Republican senators voted with the Democrats to end debate: Coleman of Minnesota (he'll be running for reelection in '08, possibly against Al Franken), Collins & Snowe of Maine, Specter of Pennsylvania, and (here's a surprise) Warner of Virginia.