Don't look now, but the Senate Democrats got enough Republican votes yesterday to overturn a filibuster on a critically important social issue. Eleven GOPniks joined the Democrats in favor of ending the filibuster against the DREAM Act -- the bill that enables undocumented-immigrant young persons to stay in the U.S. and eventually win citizenship if they were brought here as children, graduate high school, and then either complete two years of college or serve two years in the military. What's that? You missed the story on how the Democrats broke a Republican filibuster? Of course you did -- because eight Democrats voted to sustain it. Worse yet, most of those eight come from states that have experienced the least immigration. Fifty-two senators voted to end the filibuster -- 41 Democrats, 11 Republicans. Nor did all those Republicans come from the moderate wing of the party (there aren't 11 Republican moderates in the Senate). The list of Republican Dream Act supporters included not only Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and Chuck Hagel, but also Sam Brownback, Larry Craig, Orrin Hatch, Kay Bailey Hutchison and, believe it or not, Trent Lott. Looked at with an unjaundiced eye, it's easy to understand why such a bill might appeal even to conservatives: After all, its chief effect is simply to declare that it's public policy to hold children harmless for the infractions of their parents, provided those children grow up to be responsible adults. But this logic didn't seem to sway the eight Democrats who voted to kill the bill by filibuster. Some were up for re-election next year in socially conservative states -- Arkansas' David Pryor, Montana's Max Baucus, and embattled Mary Landrieu of what is the increasingly ethnically-cleansed Louisiana. Two had come to the Senate in narrow victories last year (and don't face voters for another five): Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jon Tester of Montana. And three -- Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad from North Dakota and Old Bobby Byrd from West Virginia -- are neither neophytes nor facing voters any time soon.