Democrats on Saturday clinched the votes needed to advance the Senate's version of President Obama's health care overhaul to the floor for a historic debate scheduled to begin shortly after 8 p.m..
Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas was the last of three Democratic holdouts to announce her support for the procedural vote. Earlier, Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana said she would support the debate, one day after Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska announced his intent to vote
If ever there was an example of what the 24 hour news cycle has done it's the reportage on this story. This vote is the ultimate in inside baseball, normally. Yet, all of cable news has reported on each and every twist and turn in this over the last week.
It's become the cable news version of a soap opera. Ultimately, it's one very small step in a long process. Procedurally, it means that debate will simply start. None of the three Senators: Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, and Blanche Lincoln have committed to voting against the filibuster that will come. Senator Joe Liberman could also join the Republicans in a filibuster.
So, all this means is that the legislative process will begin in the Senate in December. It doesn't mean that the bill will overcome a filibuster. It certainly doesn't mean that a final bill will overcome a threshold. Yet, this vote, later this evening, has become the political story over the week. It's received wall to wall coverage. Welcome to the brave new world of 24 hour cable news.
6 comments:
This could provide somewhat of an incentive for Senators to stop acting like idiots, if it weren't for the fact that the people covering them weren't idiots themselves.
It would appear that this bill is a done deal.
No democrat including Lieberman will stand in the way of the party regadless of the consequences.
This is the wholesale transformation of the democrat party as the modern day communist party.
I psoted a comment but it does not appear. Is this getting through?
This shouldn't really be a surprise. Its one thing to vote against a bill, its another thing to filibuster your own party's agenda. Its a third thing entirely to filibuster bringing the bill to the floor. That means you don't think health care reform should pass at all, that its not important to America as a whole. In which case the Democrats might as well expel them from the caucus entirely.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Lieberman sustain tonight's filibuster, either. The man is absolutely dishonest, no principles whatsoever.
If the comment about not thinking healthcare is important is directed at me, then yes I think this healthcare bill should not go through. It has nothing to do with healthcare. It is anything but a healtchcare bill.
The democrats will not oppose it in any way. Even Blanche Lincoln who is going to lose her shirt and going to go down with the ship is voting for this.
I can't wait to see how much it takes to buy their votes.
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