It just keeps keep getting better.
Merry Christmas everyone!

It just keeps keep getting better.
Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope all this hatred of the bill by the far left. I hope that we can have it die on their hands(Not that I care who kills it).

but it feels like the good guys are winning. I’m feeling better today about our prospects for driving a stake in the heart of this vampire.

I don’t say that to encourage complacency, but optimism. It’s not over ’til it’s over.

the heart of the happy warrior.

I do.

from HuffPo:
As one high-ranking labor official emailed the Huffington Post:

“What is really frustrating folks here is that it’s impossible to make and implement plans to pressure senators when the White House and Reid keep undermining the efforts no one from the outside can put any credible pressure on Senators because they know the White House will back that Senator up whatever they do. If the White House is going to cave to a Senator who spent the entire election campaigning with McCain and calling Obama a traitor how are we supposed to have any leverage over anyone?

“If Lieberman — who has done so many horrible things directly to Obama — can get away with this on Obama’s signature issue it makes it infinitely harder for us to pressure senators, on issues in the future, because there is no fear of retribution or coercion from the White House. They only pressure progressives, not anyone in the middle.”
===

This gives insight into big labor’s standard operating procedures: pressure, fear, intimidation. Imagine, the union is pissed because they can’t green-light their goons to pressure senators. And boy scouts are off limits too!

It was so fun watching Sen. Senders wax apoplectic on the Senate floor when he withdrew his amendment.

Maybe the wicked witch stay dead for another year!

indicates to me that the GOP thinks the situation on this bill has gone from bad for the Democrats to good for the Democrats (not politically, of course, but passage-wise).

Many at Redstate railed against McConnell for his “messaging amendments.” Then we heard that the reason the Republicans were doing that was because they felt they could get away with it and still achieve the same goal of defeating the bill. Only as a last resort, in the most dire of circumstances, would they move to procedural delaying tactics.

Today’s actions are a sign that they think the situation is dire and passage is closer, IMHO. Either way, keep delaying.

Cheer me up, Dan. Tell me that this isn’t some vas trap we are walking into to get us to let down our gourd, er, gaurd.

With Reid having given in to Lieberman, that encourages others to threaten and wheedle to see how much of their way they can get – but more importantly, the interest groups see blood in the water and are sharpening their teeth to see what they can get.

But at some point, when the final up-or-down decision point comes, that’s when we’ll find out how non-negotiable the demands are.

Until that point, it’s all sound-and-fury and spectacle – when the final point comes to decide if something is better than nothing – and that something isn’t getting any better – then we’ll find out what the Senators are made of.

Until then, all the Republicans do is to increase on the pressure – and deny cover to anyone on the Democratic side. Such as what happened with Sanders today. No more Republican participation in theater.

But again, if cloture goes down, it won’t be with 59 aye votes for cloture; no one will be the one to prevent 60 votes.

A good emotional victory, but I can’t help feeling like they signal the beginning of the end (for America).

which is the real issue. They can get 51 votes. The question is if they can get 60, and Sanders may be one of the 60 for cloture.

can you clarify your viewpoint maybe? When you say you think the bill will fail (and you have consistently), are you saying that you think there will be a vote, the vote will fail, the bill will die, and they will move on to something else? Are you saying you think the whole healthcare effort currently before Congress will be defeated and no new legislation will go on the books?

That’s how I would define “defeat,” at least.

This is different from Dan’s earlier article. Senator Sanders told the WH and Reid that he is voting against the bill unless it is changed back.

Needless to say, HUGE.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/72623-sanders-says-he-cant-vote-for-healthcare-bill

harry reid and obama may have to change skivies after the Union, Howard Dean get done with them and reidgate-obamagate only ends up with 58 vites.

Yep, they will have another round of extortion and bribery to contend with, I wonder what Sanders will sell out for.
It was great to see that he retracted his own amendment, knowing full well it could never survive the light of day.
Mark

the other day was that it was very unlikely she’d get on board. I’d love to hear your reasoning for that!

I haven’t formed much of an opinion on Snowe’s likely vote, but her comments about how it would be very difficult to address all of her concerns by Christmas made it sound like she was still open to the possibility that it might become a bill she could support.

I was glad to see that one of her problems was with the individual mandate though. =)

Without that the bill falls apart.