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Ethanol subsidies are still alive and kickin'.

The Senate rejected an amendment Tuesday that would have put an abrupt stop to tax breaks and incentives for corn-based ethanol products popular with farm-state lawmakers.

Introduced by Sen. Tom Coburn, a cantankerous Oklahoman known as "Dr. No," the amendment fell short, failing in a 40-to-59 procedural vote as members of both parties joined in opposition to the measure. Sixty votes were needed for passage.

Coburn, a conservative Republican, framed the elimination of ethanol subsidies as a responsible way to cut the nation's deficit, and found himself allied with some unusual bedfellows: environmentalists.

"Eliminating the ethanol tax earmark and tariff would be a big step toward restoring fiscal sanity in Washington," Coburn said in a statement. "Ethanol is bad economic policy, bad energy policy and bad environmental policy."

"Today's way of doing business is a tax increase on anyone who can't hire a tax lobbyist or make large donations to special interest groups in Washington," Coburn said. "Taxpayers are tired of this game and expect us to eliminate wasteful special interest spending in all of its forms."