Free Republic

In Congress’s upper chamber, a Virginia fox may be the one to deliver the knock-out uppercut to Obamacare. Quiet, cunning, and independent, Sen. Jim Webb (D., Va.) has been on the sidelines for much of the Senate’s health-care debate. Instead of ranting, like Bernie Sanders, Webb has been mulling legislative language in his office for weeks. Neighboring Senate staffers whisper that Team Webb is having a real tough time shuffling the senator out of the office to make appearances on the glad-handing circuit. It seems the man just wants to sit, study, read, and think — strange priorities in the...

As the Senate health care debate enters crunch time, the pressure from all sides continued to grow today, with Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., right in the middle. His spokesman quickly dismissed a report by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin that Nelson was even being threatened with “closure of an air force base,” presumably Offutt Air Force Base, which is south of Omaha and home of U.S. Strategic Command. Malkin also said Nelson has been promised a “bribe bigger than Sen. Landrieu's.” That's a reference to Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat and one of the last holdouts on the vote to...

WASHINGTON -- The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states, strongly opposes the abortion language contained in the "manager's amendment" filed today by U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nv.). Reid intends to press for Senate approval of the language during the days immediately ahead, without allowing an opportunity for any revisions to be considered. The following statement may be attributed to NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson: "The manager’s amendment is light years removed from the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that was approved by the House of Representatives on November 8 by a bipartisan...

UPDATE: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just filed for cloture on the motion to proceed to debate on his health care bill. That pretty much seals it. Unless conservative Democrats take a very public stand by voting "no," the bill unveiled yesterday will be the bill the Senate hashes out on the floor.

Holy craptards. McConnell is having Reid's amendment read out loud. Does this mean that Colburn and DeMint will get the whole bill read out loud? If the R's do this, I'll be impressed. I never thought they had the balls.

Patriots, "Telephone Tea Party #2" starts NOW!!! Storm congress by phone by calling your Senators at (202) 224-3121 and telling them to "Kill the Pelosi/Reid/Obamacare Bill." Let's bury congress with calls and protest the bill. CALL NOW, CALL EARLY, CALL OFTEN. LET YOUR VOICES BE HEARD. Rise up, call NOW!

18 states allow for recall votes on US Senators. The 18 states allowing for recall are as follows: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. The Senate oath of office is: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well...

Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., and 19 other GOP senators today called for a hearing into reports that the Obama administration used the future of Offutt Air Force Base as bargaining chip in the health care debate, according to a press release by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., has flatly denied that Offutt came up in connection with the health care bill or any other piece of legislation. The White House also has described those reports as "absurd." The group of Republican senators called for a hearing in a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin,...

Here is video of Michael Goldfarb, of The Weekly Standard, talking with Glenn Beck yesterday about a source who told him that President Obama's team has threatened Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska to get him to support the Senate Health Care Bill. Goldfarb said a source told him they threatened to put Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska on the Base closing review list if Nelson does not support ObamaCare. Twenty GOP Senators are now reportedly calling for an investigation into the threat. Goldfarb says it is not a credible threat, and shows the White House does not even...

A year in the making, sweeping health-care legislation backed by President Barack Obama hung in the balance yesterday as conservative Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson withheld his vote in pursuit of stricter abortion limits. “Without modifications, the language concerning abortion is not sufficient,” Nelson declared in a statement that summarized the results of days of negotiations. With the support of the second-term Nebraskan, the White House and Senate Democrats would command 60 votes for the health care measure, enough to overcome a GOP filibuster and pass the bill within a matter of days. Without it, the prospects are far more uncertain....

On Tuesday, the Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb, citing an unnamed Senate aide, wrote that "the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn't fall into line." Translation: Goldfarb is reporting that, according to his source, the Obama administration is suggesting to Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska (left), who has been hesitant to support the Senate health care bill due to his concerns over abortion, that it will close the base if Nelson doesn't back the bill. It was, the source said, a "naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and...

We must keep fighting this. Keep calling, emailing, faxing your senator, the vote is scheduled for Monday at 1am

Supposedly he’s in Connecticut for the Jewish sabbath, but come on. We all know he’s in Barbados. Laughing his ass off. Already, they’ve wheeled in the cots for members and staff who choose to slumber party the night away in the Capitol, or Senate offices. But tomorrow, bright and early, all of them could need to be on hand for procedural reasons. For instance, Democrats expect to have to waive a budget point of order they expect Republicans to raise against the defense appropriations bill. That requires 60 votes… “After being assured by Democratic and Republican leaders that his vote...

Senate Democratic leaders say last-minute changes to the health care bill include giving nonprofit health insurance companies an exemption from the excise tax on insurers, a revision pushed by Sen. Carl Levin, who is a major recipient of campaign contributions form mega nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield. The excise tax or fee on health insurance companies was expected to bring in $6.7 billion to help pay for the nearly $1 trillion bill, but the complete exemption for nonprofits sought by Mr. Levin, Michigan Democrat, would cut the revenue in half. "The health insurance fee proposal in the pending Senate bill...

Video: "Now - for the first time - there is a clear majority in the Senate that's willing to stand up to the insurance lobby and embrace lasting health insurance reforms that have eluded us for generations. Let's bring this long and vigorous debate to an end." Oooooooobama! A CLEAR MAJORITY!!! A clear manufactured, arm-twisted majority at best!

The Senate is heading toward a Christmas Eve vote to pass landmark healthcare legislation, but instead of holiday cheer, Democrats and Republicans are digging in for trench warfare. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is determined to finish work before the Christmas holiday and has set a schedule that would end with a final vote on the evening of Dec. 24. “We’re going to finish this healthcare bill before we leave here for the holidays,” Reid declared on the floor Thursday. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has told colleagues that he will not give any ground on procedural...

WASHINGTON — Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson — the moderate Democrat whose opposition is holding up the Senate's health care bill — says new language on abortion doesn't satisfy his concerns.

The path to 60 just got a lot more difficult: In an interview Thursday with a Nebraska radio station, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said new compromise language on abortion funding is unacceptable. “As it is right now, without further modifications, it isn’t sufficient,” Nelson told KLIN radio in Lincoln, NE. This could be a significant blow to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s effort to line up 60 votes in the coming days for the health care bill. Nelson has said he would filibuster the bill unless the abortion language mirrored what was included in the House bill. Even if abortion...

Democrats in the Senate still face a filibuster threat from within their own party as they try to push health care legislation to a vote, though the key holdout says he's merely interested in "getting it right." Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson said Thursday he was unsatisfied by a proposed compromise on the issue of federal abortion funding in the Senate's health care reform bill -- but even if that is resolved, he still might support a filibuster if other issues he has raised aren't addressed. A spokesman for Nelson told Fox News on Thursday that the Nebraska Democrat also is...

Don’t believe everything you hear. The Senate Democrats are not on the verge of a collapse. They are on the verge of compromising every single thing they want just so they can get a “health care reform” bill passed. Here’s what I’m being told: