It seems like Harry Reid is following his plan to a tee and we are going to get the cloture vote on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. How could this not happen now? If he’s scheduling the vote he must not be bluffing and have something up his sleeve? Is Harry screwing with us to make us believe that the passage of this bill is inevitable?

they would call something like this a “conscience vote.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscience_vote

The leftwing crackup makes me chuckle.

…but he is in fact a solid no and is going to vote against cloture on ObamaCare no matter what. That certainly is the place he seems to be moving to; he isn’t being cowed by Democrat threats, and he doesn’t seem to be willing to turn himself into a prostitute in the mold of Sister Senator Mary.

That leaves Dingy at 59. His only hope therefore is to peel off at least one Republican, and who will it be? Snowe and/or Collins? As others have pointed out before, the Maine Twins never cross the aisle unless they have cover from other liberal GOP senators, and Specter ain’t there to give it to them anymore. Voinovich? I doubt it; he may skip the final cloture vote as he did the initial one, but I don’t see him casting a vote for ObamaCare and I’m not hearing anyone worried about him on our side or hopeful about him on theirs.

So, Dingy’s still at 59. Except he isn’t even there. Because if Nelson stands firm then Webb is going to peel away from the Dems too, and perhaps even Lincoln. Reid is nowhere near where he needs to be and isn’t going to get there. Composer_Man has it right; Dingy is scheduling the vote anyway because he has no choice but to go for broke and is hoping like hell he can pull a miracle out of his ass in the interim.

The momentum is on our side. The support is collapsing on theirs. There are more than enough Democrat senators who right now are more frightened than they have ever been in their entire careers. We are going to stop this.

I’ve lost count on the number of times this bill has been declared dead only to find it rising up again. Saved by Stupak, saved by the GOP, saved by Obama speeches, etc.

Until cloture fails and the Democratic leadership clears it from their schedule this thing is alive and deadly. Hopefully someone drives a stake through its heart soon.

of Kos’ article:

“The one thing they can’t do is blame kos or Howard Dean or progressives for killing health reform. If health reform dies, it will be at the hands of the Joe Liebermans and Ben Nelsons of the world — and the people who negotiated with them.”

Kos is trying to solidify where to place the blame for failure. That is a very good sign for us. Blame Bush and the right seems to have fallen a notch. From what Kos says, it appears the leftists are fixing bayonets in their own civil war.

“…the Joe Liebermans and Ben Nelsons of the world — and the people who negotiated with them” WOW, who might those people be who negotiated with them???!!!

Between this and the Naked Emporer vid you posted, my day is merry and bright. Keep it up and I may start believing in Santa again.

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Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

It would be an interesting exercise if the GOP were to propose an Amendment that a) eviscerated the original bill and b) proposed a public option paid for only by those that actually opt in. No taxes on any person or any entity. Basically those that loathe capitalism and private insurance would be free to sign up for their beloved public option, they just wouldn’t be able to force me to subsidize them. And I expect Kos to be first in line to sign up.

Call their bluff.

…with a fish and tell him that although HE may be a Marksist (I know), most Americans are not.

…planning on requesting to read the bill on the floor? Or does that only apply to amendments?

Isn’t it more appropriate to say that Obamacare is now in a “free fire zone”?

I’m willing to bet that if Nelson refuses to budge then some of the cowardly moderates who have been keeping their radar up and their heads down will now start to come out with statements of their own regarding the need to “slow down” or “start over” to test the waters before coming out in full blown opposition. That would be sweet. The Dems would have massively injured themselves, exposed themselves an Teh One as the Marxists they are and accomplished absolutely nothing on their agenda.

Next year, we roll start rolling back decades of Leftist anti-free market legislation.

It’s not exactly “eating their own”, but it is nibbling around the edges.
.

There will be a vote at1 am (manager’s amendment I guess). Does this mean it is over?

have to be remembered no matter what the issue at hand is. They are experts at arm-twisting and outright blackmail.

It is not over until it is is over.

Talking Points Memo is reporting MoveOn.org is telling their members to call their Senator and Kill this Bill:

“MoveOn.org is asking its members to send letters to their senators asking them to oppose the health care bill entirely.”

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/live/health-care/#

As I said a few days ago, Progressives basically believe that this bill will accomplish nothing other than further damage the liberal name. The bill is withering on the vine, and liberals, in their usual slow way, took 4 months longer than conservatives to realize that the bill fails to meet the goals that anyone, left or right, set out for health care reform when this all started.
http://neoavatara.com/blog/?p=8719

The melt down has begun. Dylan Ratigan going off on Wasserman-Putz.

If as he says he’s not voting for it without his abortion language and whatever else, then why wouldn’t he just say, “Screw you – I’m headed home. If you reinsert my amendment give me a call and I’ll fly back.”?

The fact that he’s still there waiting for “acceptable” language makes it look like there’s a way he can weasel out. There is obviously a difference between “his” language and “acceptable” language, which indicates that he is leaving some gray area, right?

However, we need to stop fooling ourselves. How many times did we say that the Blue Dogs were not going to go along?? And look what happened. Now we are pinning all our hopes on what?? A Demoncrat!!! We are screwed!!!!! If people like Blance Lincoln isn’t listening to her constituents back home, what makes you think that Nelson is going to listen to his???? I want to believe just like everyone else (I have been physically ill over this), that this crap can be defeated. But I just don’t think we should be banking on a Demoncrat to give us good news.

When this passes, we need to pick ourselves up and get to work as a unified party to get people elected that will do what’s right for the country.

The Weekly Standard makes reference to David Brooks’ column today. He is highly regarded by Democrats and moderate Republicans. He said there are reasons to vote for the bill, but there are more and better reasons to vote against it.

The Supreme Court. It’s classic Congressional overreach. History buffs know that FDR had his comeuppance when Congress at his bidding unconstitutionally tried to pack the Supreme Court. The Supremes rebuffed Congress, handing FDR a huge defeat.

(and it likely will), it is mostly vaporware. Nothing important really takes effect until 2013 and as in everything it will come down to funding. As long as a new bureaucracy isn’t created (because they never die) and Medicare and Medicaid aren’t expanded, we can get rid of anything else as long as we are back in power by then. Reminder not to get emotionally caught up in an hour by hour dog and pony show . It ain’t over till it’s over, but we’re likely to duck the worst of this.

This all reminds me of an exchange I had with GC back in the Spring when everyone was so down. I remember guaranteeing him we’d be having very different discussions vis a vis the Left by later in the year, and ..so we are. You all do great work, but once in a while you oughta stop and realize “man we’ve come a long way baby” in under a year.

Just received the Wall Street Journal update: they got to Nelson. He now will vote for Hell-th Care!

So much for D.O.A. predictions. Believe no Dem!

It’s going to take some time for that to happen. It seems that he doing the same as Coburn did Wednesday. I love this. See, Mitch does have some balls after all.