Bad news for the Dominatrix of the House. Another member of her caucus refuses to obey:
U.S. Rep. Harry Teague said Friday that he will vote against the health care reform bill expected to come up for a vote in the U.S. House next week.
According to the Lefty blog FireDogLake, which has no incentive to make this sound worse than it is, Teague’s decision has made Madam Speaker’s life a lot harder:
Teague puts the definite No votes at 210, with five leaners, four of them part of the Stupak bloc. There are only 8 undecideds left, and 208 Yes votes with leaners. So Pelosi would have to get all 8, including Stupak bloc member Kathy Dahlkemper, and hold Marcy Kaptur (who probably shouldn’t be a lean Yes).
Now, this evening’s drama about Bart Stupak makes more sense. It’s looking more and more as if Pelosi will have to reach some accomodation on abortion. But, if she does, then she’ll lose the pro-abortion crowd.
UPDATE:
All of the above assumes no deal with the “Stu-pack” that the pro-abortion crew will accept. Well, it looks like the Dominatrix may have whipped everyone into compliance:
The deal calls for Stupak to have a vote on his amendment either before or after the House votes to confirm the Senate bill on Sunday. Stupak is confident that he has the votes to pass the measure, and is happy to have the vote after the House passes the Senate bill. He believes that by using a “tie bar� measure, his amendment would be “tied� to the health care bill — which would require just 51 votes in the Senate.
This is obviously pretty technical, but it sounds to me like Stupak rolled over, or the pro-abortion members caved, which means the term “principled Democrat” has again been shown to be an oxymoron.
Post a Comment