(See my 3 PM update below)

The White House announced (I think with the Bret Baier interview on Fox) that there would be a 72-hour reading period of the health care bill, pushing the vote up to no earlier than Sunday, assuming the president didn’t lie or was misinformed. He has been known to lie.

This means the vote will not have occurred when the president lifts off for the South Seas. But it also signaled that the Senate bill now before the House, whether deemed, or actually voted on, is not to be the language of the final law. Another Obama lie?…or a signal to the House that he will keep the promises of changes then reconciliation in the Senate? But only Reid can promise that, not Obama, and he hasn’t promised any such thing. And besides, he’s been known to lie as well. But it does seem the “Slaughter Rule” may well be the first volley at Ft Sumpter, as suggested here all week.

Still, this is a small victory in that any delay in the White House’s 18th, then 20th deadline is a little mud in their face. By the vote not taking place until after Obama’s plane lifts off, it could only be a face-saving feint, in that no one will be able to see the president pitch a fit if the vote fails, or doesn’t come off at all, which also tells us it takes him several hours to cool down and he has to be sequestered in a safe place, away from a mic and teleprompter for several hours so as not to show his behind, which also tells us what we’ve always known; he doesn’t handle rejection very well.

The MSM continue to refer to this monstrosity as “landmark”, “historic” but are nonplussed about the constitutional and “historic” ramifications. Indeed, both terms are correct in the sense that the Bolshevik Revolution, Mao’s Long March and Hitler’s 1933 electoral win were also historic and landmark. And come to think of it, the world media then were as nonplussed as they are now.

At least Fox has tried to lay out some of the blue pencil issues in this bill(s), and the obfuscations and lies used to hide the contradictions, but even they say little about the constitutional magnitude of it all. Besides, I’ve decided, television just can’t do it, out of commercial constraints. The AP has actually done some good factual reporting, but then the stories are buried on the internet where you have to wade through 672 other feature sites, which tell us reporters and editors aren’t on the same page, at least in a fact vs non-fact sort of way. Even on the Sunday talk shows the most they can give is ten minutes, and that with Axelrod or Van Hollen hogging seven of those minutes. No matter their Left leaning preferences, the news paradigm has been overwhelmed. Maybe if Fox gave John Stossel two hours. Solid.

(One note: Bret Baier’s interview of Obama yesterday revealed much about Obama he’d just as soon not be revealed. Baier did us a service. And although a slightly envious, i think, Britt Hume panned Baier’s efforts somewhat, the interview showed baier to be an interviewer to be dreaded. He did a smack-donw good job.)

Thanks to Rush Limbaugh, there is more news coming out about the legality/constitutionality of the Slaughter Rule, so look for some decisive opinions by the end of the news cycle on Friday. Someone will tip their hand as to what they deem to intend.

One by one, the states are beginning to line up. Idaho joined Virginia yesterday in saying “No”. (Idaho probably said “Hell, no.”) 37 states in all have proposals in process. It seems they can hear the People better than Washington can.

If you want to know about this stuff, the only thing to do is read, and you won’t find any better site that right here on RedState with the reporting and analysis by Dan Perrin and Brian Darling especially, but also several other regular front page contributors. Perrin’s analysis yesterday, The Fog of War, is as good as you will find anywhere in laying out the labyrinthine iffiness of this entire “process”. And he cites no numbers, no head counts, which even now, are still silly, in that all are filled with false hopes or false fears, and were probably pushed for that very reason.  Just go back and read all they’ve had to say here the past several days and you will be an expert.

On the talk show circuit, I never know what Hannity is doing or saying, but Rush Limbaugh has dedicated almost his entire show so far this week to this one subject, and in the proper context; the “criminal and treasonous” (my words) shredding of the Constitution. He has “damned this deem stuff to death”, so much so the rest of the media can no longer ignore it. He has called down a phone-storm on Washington, which is actually having some impact on those individual Congress members who actually can envision their name being ripped off the Central Avenue viaduct, and having to move out to Ottumwa to avoid the empty beer bottles in the front yard.

If we can keep this up until Good Friday, we may be close to being home by April 19th.

3 PM Update, (64 Hours and Counting):

The Reconciliation bill has just been released, and if I understand it, This will be sitting side by side with the current Senate Bill in the house, and when they vote to deem the Senate Bill passed, this will be deemed to be substituted, and never ever sent to the Senate for any vote. It would go straight to the President for signature.

The House just defeated a GOP motion 220 to 205, but don’t fret that, as this had not been released at the time of that vote. The language of this “new bill” will only drive away more votes, for I doubt anything they can put in it will be enough to get that knot out the belly of the undecideds, now that the process has been so nakedly exposed.

I’ll save the rhetorical flourishes (*&*!&*!%) for later. I’m not angry, just a little surprised they have been so open in their illegality. Heads will roll, and we still have 64 hours to sharpen our blades. Getting that bill through, then from the House of Representatives, past a standing, jealous Senate who has just been screwed by their own leader, onto the desk of the President…then into the Government printing office…will be the longest trek any person voting Aye in this process will ever take, short of that final 9 steps up to the scaffold being built for them as we speak.

Oh, and Obama had to cancel his vacation altogether, so a little more sand in his face.