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Nelson prolife amendment tabled: Nelson (D, NE) caving to follow.

Put not your trust in Democrats.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  December 8th, 2009 at 08:18 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

They tabled the amendment that Senator Nelson offered for the health care rationing bill – the one that would have aligned it with the Stupak amendment for the House version – on a largely party-line vote (54/45, with Byrd not voting).  Senator Nelson, despite vowing to filibuster*, is even now revising and extending his remarks:

A few reporters waiting outside the door asked him how it would effect his decision on whether to support the final effort.

“I want to continue to work on this,” he said, not ruling out his support, at least “not at this point in time. I want to continue to work on the project we’re working on… This makes it harder right now [to support the bill]. We’ll have to see if they can make it easier.”

(H/t: Hot Air) The NRLC has already announced that they will now oppose cloture of the health care rationing bill. Mind you, they also promised to score the vote on Nelson-Hatch, and it got tabled anyway.  Nelson’s not up for re-election until 2012 anyway, and the man will be 71 by then; he might decide to just retire.  So don’t rely on him keeping his word.  The Senate is full of Democrats who talk big about their conservative principles, right up to the moment where they have to fight for them.

Moe Lane

*Specifically:

“It is Stupak language,” Nelson said. “I’ve said at the end of the day if it doesn’t have Stupak language on abortion in it I won’t vote to move it off the floor.”

Asked whether that meant he was intent on stalling the bill, Nelson said: “I just said that, didn’t I? This isn’t anything new, I’ve said this for a long time and people are finally hearing it.”

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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  • http://charlemagne-the-hammer.blogspot.com/ DerKrieger

    Moe

    What do you know about this guy running for Congress in NV-22? Lt. Colonel Allen West.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP2p91dvm6M&feature=player_embedded

  • antisocial

    “We?ll have to see if they can make it easier”… He is looking for a cave. Or maybe a bribe.

  • http://charlemagne-the-hammer.blogspot.com/ DerKrieger

    I honestly believe there are a lot of Dems who desperately want a way out of the hole Obama has thrown them in with his insistence on Obamacare. How many long (too long IMO) Democrat Senate careers will end next Nov because of this? How many House Dems will be sacrificed? How many will retire before they’d really like to? I suspect many are being offered jobs or even cash for their votes. But not all. So we need to find out who they are and ask them if supporting Obama, Reid, and Pelosi is really worth sacrificing their careers.

  • Praying

    running in Florida?? Just wondering.

  • neoavatara

    This should be easy for Dems to pass. Obama has said he supports the Hyde amendment. The problem is, neither he nor the extreme left are telling the truth. They are trying to establish a new right: the right to taxpayer funded abortion. They can spin it any way they want, but ultimately, that is what they are trying to accomplish. We will see if Obama and moderate Dems will keep their word…I doubt it.
    http://neoavatara.com/blog/?p=8916

  • http://charlemagne-the-hammer.blogspot.com/ DerKrieger

    Not sure where I saw NV

  • countessolenska

    I bet Mark Warner is one of the senators who would really rather not vote for this bill.

    Did you see the amendments that Warner and other freshman Senate Dems are offering in an attempt to controls costs?

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/Frosh%20Package%20Section-by-Section%20%2812-6-09%29.pdf

  • bk

    a) Snowe and Lieberman
    b) Snowe and Nelson
    c) Lieberman and Nelson
    or I suppose
    d) all three

    Snowe and Lieberman will probably vote the same way since they have expressed the same concerns. If Reid concocts some wording that they’ll go for, he doesn’t need to try to add anything to please Nelson.

  • bs

    This bill will pass the Senate and go to conference. And I think it’s a total crapshoot as to what happens there.

    The GOP has totally underestimated Pelosi and Reid’s ability to control their people. Not that that matters – there’s nothing we can do about it anyway. But a more realistic attitude about the capabilities of the Dems might help us to craft a more effective strategy. The “wait until they screw themselves” approach ain’t working.

  • http://charlemagne-the-hammer.blogspot.com/ DerKrieger

    …Blanche Lincoln to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, the WSJ and to Curtis Coleman and Gilbert Baker both of whom are running for the GOP nomination to run against her.

    “I have been following the debate over health care ?reform? quite closely and call the offices of Senators Lincoln and Pryor several times a week to express my wishes that they vote against this unconstitutional abomination. I don?t know if there are any legal obligations on the part of our representatives in the House and Senate to vote in accordance with the wishes of their constituents but there is certainly a duty to do so. That Senators Lincoln and Pryor are not firmly against a government takeover of our health care system in spite of representing a state that John McCain won 59% to 39% and in spite of statewide polls that show Arkansans are overwhelmingly against the Democrats? plans raises questions about their honesty, integrity, and their fidelity to those they were elected to represent.
    Senator Pryor likely believes that the voters will have forgotten about his vote by the time he?s up for reelection in 2014 so is likely to vote against the wishes of Arkansas voters and instead vote down the line with the most radical elements of his party. We won?t forget.
    Senator Lincoln?s support for Obamacare is somewhat more puzzling given the fact that she is aware of her poll numbers, the outcome of the presidential election in Arkansas in 2008, and the lack of support for Obamacare in Arkansas. Senator Lincoln doesn?t strike me as a Leftist but rather as a pragmatic moderate who has, or had, the best interests of Arkansans in mind more often than not. But for some reason she seems to have thrown in with the socialist Left and has so far joined in with those that are seeking to radically alter the relationship between free American citizens and their government. Why?
    Senator Landrieu of Louisiana has confessed to, and even seems proud of, accepting $300 million dollars from taxpayers to cover Medicare spending in LA. What I want to know, and we should all demand to know, is what was Senator Lincoln?s price for signing onto an unconstitutional power grab against the wishes of Arkansans? Was she offered a plum position in the Obama administration when, not if, she loses next year? Was she offered a cash bribe for herself? Senator Lincoln must know that her reelection hopes, if she has any at this point, are extremely dependent on her Obamacare vote so why would she vote for it and commit political suicide if not in expectation of personal gain? If she votes for Obamacare I want her investigated. I want the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and her would-be GOP opponents for her office next year to demand a full accounting of her vote. If it is discovered that she voted to support Obamacare in exchange for personal gain she should be charged with bribery, conspiracy and brought to trial. I don?t make these demands lightly but out of disgust, anger, and frustration with a woman, and let?s not forget Mark Pryor either, that is willfully ignoring the wishes of Arkansans for no rational reason. I hope that the courage to pursue such an investigation exists.”

    Any thoughts on how to ratchet up the legal pressure on this traitor?

  • http://charlemagne-the-hammer.blogspot.com/ DerKrieger

    …needs some scrappers. We desperately need people willing to fight dirty. Where are all the ads on TV? Where are the daily news conferences? Where the Hell is the GOP?

  • ericstenner

    They are saying they have dropped the public option now, and they are going with a private arrangement to be federally supervised. So they took their foot out of the door a little bit, but it’s still in the door. And it sounds like just the wording that Lieberman and Snowe will need to get on board.

  • countessolenska

    But are they dropping the public option in favor of the OPM-managed private insurance offering alone or with the liberal “compromise” of the Medicare expansion?

  • ericstenner

    So they will probably word it however they have to in order to rope her in. Not that any of this will make it past conference anyway.

    Sounds like this new stupid idea is being thrown over to CBO for scoring.

  • countessolenska

    I don’t think she will vote for it.

    So, if they keep the Medicare expansion in, they will have to get Lieberman, and he hasn’t committed on the Medicare expansion, saying he wanted to look at the figures from the CBO. Nelson said basically the same thing.

  • jeffreywturner

    Collins will vote however Snowe votes, so they only really need to get Snowe, and they can tell Lieberman and Nelson both the kiss off.

  • Praying

    a true conservative. We have a talk radio show in Knoxville, Lee and Terry Frank, that I really enjoy. They talk a lot of TN politics as well as national, and I really value their opinions. Lt. Col. West was in town for a fundraiser (he’s a UT alum) a few months back, and they just couldn’t say enough good things about him. I wish him success in Florida.

  • Richard Mullins

    So that makes it a little bit dicey on Dingy Harry’s part. We have a lot of time before they can even vote on the bill(2 months+).

  • countessolenska

    I bet Reid will call for cloture next week. That is THE key vote. If he gets his 60, it’s all over.

  • cwilson

    The Senate is full of DemocratsRepublicans who talk big about their conservative principles, right up to the moment where they have to fight for them.

  • mbecker908

    In this Congress the GOP is absolutely irrelevant. They are playing at legislative drama but it”s nothing but smoke and mirrors. Reid/Pelosi WILL deliver their votes.

    To their credit – and to the damn Republicans unending discredit – they understand they are in a war for the soul of America. And, they will do whatever they have to to win. Republicans are totally clueless.

  • Richard Mullins

    I’ll have to look up Senate rules but I’m sure that’s the way it’s done.

  • Kyle-MI

    Besides which, the news is reporting that they are ditching the public option (at least in name). Clearly they are shooting more for Snowe.

  • Richard Mullins

    So the point is not to twist any Democrat arms at all but to make Dingy Harry work to keep his caucus in line.

  • countessolenska

    I don’t believe Snowe will support the “compromise” containing the Medicare expansion. Lieberman said he would consider it.

    What Republican would support an expansion of Medicare? What sane Democrat would?? I think all of the Democrats have gone insane. What they are doing is totally irrational and irresponsible.

    It’s like someone who is totally underwater with credit card debt going to a loan shark for a loan to pay off their credit cards.

  • countessolenska

    I believe.

  • martellus

    Mark Warner is a follower. He will do whatever he is told. He was a disaster with his spending as governor and he will be a disaster as a senator.

  • martellus

    This thing is done. They will pass it. When the cloture vote lost last Saturday the only left was for the gutless dimocrats to do their posturing and then let this monstrosity become law.

    The question is not if this thing will pass but what we do afterwords. Unfortunately only Sarah Palin has the guts to fight the rest of these “Republicans” are more interested in their standing invitations to the cocktail parties in New York and Washington, DC.

    It is time to eviscerate these SOBs.

  • ocleverone

    that pushed tax increases in Virginia when there was a budget surplus?

    He will do what he is told and vote like he is told. His campaign rhetoric about “listening to both sides, etc.” was nothing more than a schtick to get him elected.

  • mbecker908

    As in scorched earth. As in call a spade a marxist. As in produce the talking points and hammer the crap out of them at every opportunity.

  • mbecker908

    She’s not an elected official. She’s nothing more than a blogger with good sized following. For all the blather, when all is said and done and this thing passes – in one form or another – Palin will have been as totally inconsequential as anybody, or everybody, else.

  • jadedismental

    Embrace the Crazy!!

  • Richard Mullins

    So the best thing we can have happen is for violence to happen from friendly fire on the Donks side. Thing would be different if we had more people in the Senate(Republican Caucus that is). I really think the one’s here that are all passion are going to be played like a fiddle in a Bluegrass song.

  • SteveLA

    martellus

    With lines like “only Sarah Palin has the guts”, you gotta share the punch line with us….it was a joke right?

  • Menlo

    While I could be mistaken, I read somewhere that before voting to end debate, there is a final amendment that must be voted on called a “manager’s amendment” that would add in a lot of the big changes already voted on possibly along with major changes that were not. I would assume that is where (and when) their deal on the “public option” will emerge.

  • Richard Mullins

    Right now, I haven’t found that yet. I don’t think unless I find something different, the Amendment process has to go on. They didn’t stop the Amendment bomb from going off.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    Despite all the defeatism, the fact is that it is December 9th 2009. If you may recall they wanted this bill before the August Recess. You cant stop supper majorities, but eating up the clock has already pushed the calender into 2010 and other items off the agenda.

  • DROM_In_TX

    :) smile, I laughed when I read supper majority then you said eat up the clock. Dude, get some food.

  • Menlo

    See here.

    Even if the amendment goes down as expected, Coburn predicted Reid would be forced to include provisions similar to the Stupak amendment in the final bill via a manager’s amendment containing numerous changes agreed to by the Democratic caucus if he hopes to win 60 votes.

    Also, if you do a search for “manager’s amendment,” you’ll likely find out more. I’m not sure it applies with this bill, but I strongly believe Coburn’s statement is completely out of touch with reality.

  • bs

    Do you honestly think this thing is going to fail? The fact that it was delayed is fairly irrelevant. If it passes, the country loses. It doesn’t matter if it happened in February or now. The other items will still come up on the Congressional docket. Cap and trade is not dead. It’s only resting until after this other abomination goes through.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    Where is the progress on Cap and Trax
    Where is the progress on Amnesty
    Where is the progress on Card Check
    Where is the progress on DOMA
    Where is the progress on a Second Stimulus
    Where is the prgress on VAT

    We who fought this ever since the town halls have crippled this bill. We have crippled the process. We have pushed the legislative claender back.

    There is no fall session next year because of the elections. By summer, many will be in full campagn mode and summer session will be limited. They would prefer to get over an early vote and hope that after a year the public will forget or not be as mad.

    Now everything is pushed back, some things will be pushed off the table completely and those things they do vote on will occur in 2010 and much closer to the elections when they will still be fresh on people’s minds.

  • bs

    Cap and trade. The others are trivial in comparison to healthcare socialization and c&t. This is going through about as fast as could be expected…no one in their right mind (including most Dems) thought it would happen on Bambi’s schedule.

    And if you think any of that stuff is gone completely, you’re dreaming.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    .. would have been on the calender if not for our fight in health care. Its not because we fight. The town hall protestors and the like. There is no way MA would haqve changed the succession law for TK if they thought a vote would occur in January. There is no way that Obama would have wasted poltical capitol on a primetime address in August if he thought the vote would occur in January.

    Health care will not get dont in December because we fought. From January, this Congress only has six months. They all go home to campaign in July. They have healt hcare and the budget and other matters, Please tell me how they are goin to pass all the above in that time. In we quit and didtn fight, then they might have, not now. Because we fought.

  • vassar

    If it wasn’t apparent in February, or May, it should now be crystal clear now what the purposes of this administration, and certain elements in the House and Senate are.
    For one, there is a unified plan…from health care, to cap and trade, to banking regulation, to card check. Neither the Congress nor czars are acting randomly.
    If key GOP operatives don’t know this already, they should be sacked. Key conservative analysts should be making sure…today…that they do know these things.
    Then what they must do…is make sure that key moderate Democrats, in both Houses are warned, and that warning must be made in writing or some other provable form of evidence…
    …so when the purposes of the Administration are laid bare in public (early 2010), those Democrats will know, and their voters will know, that they had been warned, and theremore must be prepared to suffer the fate of the driving forces of the Left behind this government takeover.
    I am not just talking about Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson. There is Bayh of Indiana. There are both Virginia senators. And no, Senator Warner, four years will not provide enough time to heal and rehabilitate yourself.
    If any Democrat member of Congress has any hope of being a presidential contender (Bayh and Warner especially) in either 2012 or 2016, they have to decide now if they want to hitch their star to Obama’s wagon, or come out against him. The one who comes out soonest, and more forcefully, besides keeping Hillary on the sideline in perpetuity, will probably not only be the next Democrat candidate (in 2012) but also the next president, as the GOP clearly does not seem to have the stomach for this “manhood and honor” stuff.

    Since I began this alert with advice to the GOP on how to defeat the purposes of the Obamailis, it really makes no sense to then end it by describing a scenario in which the GOP will have to reach way down to find the brass to carry it all the way through, brass they haven’t been able to find in some years.
    Maybe this explains their timidity.
    And in truth, I am speaking on behalf of the people who stand to suffer once these plans are revealed and executed, and not the Party, who will, after all, be allowed to survive in some docile capacity.
    Bernard Chumm,
    Dep Director, The Sands Institute
    “Least Men Standing”

  • mbecker908

    the Dems don’t do blue on blue they line up, salute and march.

    And, the problem isn’t really that we don’t have enough troops. It’s that the troops we’ve got don’t know they’re “troops”, don’t know there’s a war on and think the guy in that trench across the way is his friend. (See McCain, Hatch, Graham, etal)

    The Dems know our guys will wet their pants if they call us a name and we never, ever retaliate or attack. The one exception was Gingrich before he got neutered. He forgot that friendly fire is our biggest enemy.

  • sarge324

    did you think any thing different.it was a democrate game.nelson is part of the problem.the evil democrates are pushing the republicans around,they must stand up for us no one else is.the democrate are trying to take our freedom.

  • Marcus_Traianus

    Mr. Nelson and his liege are the false prophets of sound, measured judgment. They speak in platitudes to supposedly appease those they represent and then vote against their will. Notice how they always “speak out” and “hold firm” to alleged principals and then in the end vote against those delusional manifestations. Who pays in the end- who loses? The people he was elected to represent and those of us who count on the good judgment of such men for the continuance of our great nation.

    I think the anti Federalists were talking about Nelson in 1787;

    It would not be difficult to prove, that any thing short of despotism, could not bind so great a country under one government; and that whatever plan you might, at the first setting out, establish, it would issue in a despotism.

  • Richard Mullins

    and I can’t find anything at all. I’d like to find it more strait from the horses mouth on this. I think the quotes from John Thune were really good.

  • Menlo

    See here.

    A Manager’s Amendment is a package of numerous individual amendments agreed to by both sides in advance.

    The managers are the majority and the minority member who manage the debate on a bill for their side.

    In any case, it will be at issue here, and pretty much
    ANYTHING, including Nelson’s amendment if Reid thinks he needs it, could be added to it before cloture.