So it was last Thursday night that Mr. Gettelfinger rejected the deal offered by Senate Republicans for interim bailout money to keep General Motors and Chrysler alive for a few more months.
His comments are specifically directed toward the notion that some people had suggested that we -- that Democrats might try to rush something through the Senate in the interim of certification and swearing-in.
Some of his figures changed in the interim - he wrote about the Senate bill in January and this week's report includes changes made by the reconciliation package that altered the Senate bill - but overall, Foster's assessment is the same.
After the resignation of Romano Prodi as Italy's prime minister, the president asked the speaker of the Senate, Franco Marini, to form an interim government.
Instead, following the precedent established with the 1972 Interim Agreement on Offensive Arms (SALT I), both the Senate and the House of Representatives would be encouraged to pass a symbolic joint resolution endorsing the bilateral chemical weapons pact.
But the Senate speaker, Franco Marini, failed to garner cross-party support for an interim government to change it, because Mr Berlusconi refused to co-operate.