CQ Politics has a great tool that analyzes the voting patterns of members of Congress. Your Gaggler has just spent a few minutes perusing the records of senators--specifically the degree to which they support the president--and found some interesting results. CQ has tallied the votes from the 214 roll-call votes of this Congress, up through June 25. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two Republican senators offering greatest support for the president's agenda are Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both from Maine. Each supported the president in 92 percent of their votes. Ohio's George Voinovich came in third with 83 percent support, and fourth was New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg with 82 percent support. Yep, that's the same Judd Gregg who was offered the post of commerce secretary but the unexpectedly withdrew his name citing "irresolvable conflicts" with the Obama administration. Maybe they weren't so irresolvable after all.

On the other end of the spectrum, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn has cast his vote in line with the president's wishes just 32 percent of the time. Coburn is a staunch conservative who decries increases in government spending and has criticized Obama on a range of topics, including his cabinet nominees and his economic recovery plans. But he also counts himself as a friend of the president. He's even met personally with the Obama in the Oval Office. "We’re very good friends. We’re totally different, but we respect eachother immensely, and we have a personal relationship that’s outside ourpolitics," Coburn told The Oklahoman newspaper in March. (What's that old saying again? With friends like these ...) Jim Bunning from Kentucky and the senior Oklahoman Sen. James Inhofe aren't big fans of the president's agenda either, voting with him 35 percent and 43 percent respectively. And what of Obama's old campaign rivals? John McCain and Lindsey Graham are right in the middle of the pack. McCain has voted for Obama's plans 62 percent of the time and Graham 63 percent.

Across the aisle, Democrats appear quite disciplined (well, for Democrats anyway) with three quarters of them voting with the president 95 percent of the time or more. Sens. Carl Levin (Michigan), Patrick Leahy (Vermont), John Rockerfeller (West Virginia), Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse (both Rhode Island) all have a perfect record of support. (Ted Kennedy has thrown 100 percent of his votes behind the president, but he's only been present for 4 percent of the votes counted this year.) Russ Feingold from Wisconsin is the Democrat least supportive of the president, voting 86 percent of the time with hs agenda. For all his talk of being an independent centrist, Evan Bayh of Indiana has still voted with Obama 95 percent of the time. And Joe Lieberman, who prominently campaigned against Obama last year and is technically an independent, still cast 97 percent of his votes in favor of the president. 

...

The dirty little secret about presidential foreign trips: There is A LOT of hurry up and wait. In about two hours, President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will hold a news conference. For now, reporters are holding in perhaps the most opulent press filing center your Gaggler has ever seen. We're inside the Kremlin Palace, in a huge room featuring massive gold chandeliers and lots of ornate woodwork, including handpainted wood floors. There are at least three gold-plated fireplaces. Not too shabby.

Rainy Red Square

Good morning from Russia! Your Gaggler is in a very rainy Moscow awaiting the arrival of President Obama who is scheduled to land here in a few hours. He’ll spend the next three days meeting with top Russian leaders, including President Dmitry Medvedev and former president turned Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Your Gaggler wrote an opus last week going over what this trip is all about. But we’ll sum it up again here in just one word: “reset.” Obama is hoping to turn the page on what has been chilly relations between the U.S. and Russia in hopes of finding new common goals. But that looks increasingly difficult, given the widening differences between the Washington and Moscow on issues like Iran and the U.S.’s plans for a missile defense shield. Administration officials had hoped to announce significant progress on a the renegotiation of a nuclear arms treaty that Obama and Medvedev announced at their first meeting last April in London. But last night, a senior White House official downplayed those expectations, admitting the negotiations had been "very complicated," in part by the Moscow's opposition to the missile shield. The Russians want the U.S. to drop it. Obama has so far refused. Gary Samore, Obama's point man on weapons of mass destructions, told reporters that that White House is hopeful the presidents will announce "some progress" on a new arms treaty, which would replace an agreement between the U.S. and Russia that expires this December.

Just as he has in Europe and other foreign stops, Obama hopes to bank on his enormous international popularity and bypass foreign leaders to appeal directly to the Russian people. But he won’t be able to do that as easily as he has in places like Germany and France. According to a new poll from the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes, only 23 percent of Russians polled have “confidence” in Obama, his lowest poll rating in the world. And, believe it or not, that’s one of the more positive numbers of the survey, which generally finds Russians sour on Americans.