you, the city of boston, and the united states of america. [ applause ] [ applause ] >> mr vice president, mayor walshies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters. none of us at this podium could possibly add to the testimony of the survivors who have spoken today. i'm just glad to be here with them and with all of you. i'm glad to join in the remembrance of crystal, and lindsay and martin and shaun. i'm glad to share in acknowledging and supporting the families who survived them, and the other survivors - many here, and some not yet ready to be here, who still hurt from this tragedy and yet inspire us with their determination. i'm glad for the chance to honour and thank again the first responders, and medical professionals and volunteers who cared for and comforted those hurt, and the law enforcement officials who meticulously and notedicly work to -- meth oddicly work to solve the crime. i'm glad to be here with mayor walsh and thomas menino, who put the emphasis on support not political throughout the week. i'm glad to have this tragedy behind us and the next marathon ahead of us. i'm glad to share in t

ozzy pab ra from capital new york and joan walsh of salon joins us again. ozzy, you are mr.s. a little bit of a situation here. the working partieses don't exist in every state. here in new york it's allowed to give the party line if the democrat wants to. we are seeing a poll that says, wow, generic working families. they could drag cuomo way down. is the expectation of the party going to run to cuomo this year? >> they put out an e-mail that they have a deadline the end of may. the big decision. it was telegraphing in explicit terms ta there are certain things that there will be a final deadline to make the decision. the poll you mentioned is all but begging them to go forward and do this. there is complications for doing that. it's not a race that they have an option of sitting out. if they have to pick a candidate that gets 50 on the line or they will lose their ballot position. they have to have someone. it's going to be cuomo or someone who runs against cuomo. in the poll he drops ten points at least in every demographic category across the boardment it signals, like y

i hereby appoint the honorable jon walsh, a senator from the state of montana, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i move to proceed to calendar number 354, the minimum wage legislation. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 354, s. 2223, a bill to provide for an increase in the federal minimum wage, and so forth. mr. reid: mr. president, following my remarks and those of the republican leader the time until 10:30 will be equally divided and controlled. at 10:30 there will be a vote on the ninth circuit judge whose name is michelle friedland. if cloture is ininvoke cloture there will be up to 30 hours of debate prior to a vote on the confirmation of the nomination. we have two votes we need to have before we leave here this week. we can have the vote at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon, and the second vote would be around 7:00 or thereabouts tomorrow afternoon, tomorrow evening. we have to finish these two matters before we leave here this week. the schedule is up t

i hereby appoint the honorable john walsh, a senator from the state of montana, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: mr. president, every time that i see the presiding officer lead the senate in prayer and certainly introducing the prayer, but directing the attention to us all to follow the presiding officer in reciting the pledge of allegiance brings back to me a lot of memories. when i first came to the senate, we had lots of members of congress who had been to war. now that's not the case. we all look at john mccain with such idealism of what he did in the vietnam war. and there are others, but there aren't many. and to have now the presiding officer having not only been to war but being a general and leading hundreds of people from montana to war, when that pledge of allegiance, i'm sure is said by the presiding officer, your feeling is a little different than everyone else's, because during those bitter battles in iraq, members of your unit were killed and injured. so even though we don't say much publicly about the new

mr. walsh: i yield. mr. tester: madam president, when this -- when your motion was objected to, the good senator from pennsylvania, senator toomey, said he wanted to have further conversation with senators coburn and senator cruz did. have you had a chance to visit with senator coburn and senator cruz about this bill? have you had the opportunity to visit with senator coburn and senator cruz about this bill? mr. walsh: yes, i have. mr. tester: that's already been done. i thank my colleague, senator walsh for bringing up the north fork watershed protection act for a vote. i echo his frustration. once again politics is trumping good policy. the north fork bill is a montana-made bill. folks who back home who support this bill are from all political sides of the spectrum. it has wide bipartisan support. members of both parties as senator walsh pointed out voted out of energy and until resources committee and today, two people, two senators who i would challenge to find the north fork on a map decide to hold this