Breaking: Nelson rejects abortion compromise

HotAir ^ | 12/17/2009 | Ed Morrisey

[JRochelle]

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 is addressed to his satisfaction, “that is not enough” for Nelson commit to voting for the bill, he said.

How bad will this get? Barack Obama hasn’t even addressed the issue of abortion with Nelson directly. That’s a pretty interesting picture of disinterest coming from the Oval Office on what is supposed to be Obama’s highest priority on his domestic agenda.

Harry Reid will have to go back to the drawing board on abortion funding, but that may not be possible. His progressive wing is already in near revolt over having to vote for a bill with no government-run plan in it. They wanted a precursor to a single-payer system; in fact, that was the entire point of the health-care reform push. Now they’re going to be asked to kill funding for abortion as well, having worked for months to build a path around the Hyde Amendment. There is no way that will get through to cloture, and no way it will pass in the House even if it did.

Nelson’s driving a stake through the heart of ObamaCare. Looks like Barack Obama has his pretext for skipping Copenhagen.

[fortheDeclaration]

Not exactly. Whatever they pass goes to conference where the House bill and Senate bill are put together into 1 bill. The bill that comes out of conference goes back to the House and back to the Senate where a simple majority passes the bill and it then goes to the Pres.

A final Bill without the anti-Abortion amendment will never pass the final vote in the House.

[Rebel Wolf]

I just hope Rahm don’t decide to have someone take the Senator for a walk out in Fort Marcy park..........

[malkee]

The pressure on Nelson to cave must be unbelievable.

That is why I believe prayers are necessary.

[Democrat_media]

A GOP Senator just did that, read a 700 page amendment on the floor. Democrats control the Senate . I'm not sure if Republicans can introduce any amendments as they don't have a majority to introduce one.

Democrats can cut off debate At ANY Time they have 60 votes.This is what they did when they just passed that last monstrous spending bill in ONE DAY.

It is you GOP Bashers that gave the Marxists/Democrats those 60 votes so that they have ABSOLUTE POWER. There is NOT A THING Republicans can do to stop them. They supposedly only have 59 votes right now as Nelson is supposedly holding out. This is all an act. They've always had the 60 votes. This was decided on election day and it is you GOP bashers who depressed conservative voter turnout. If we had just one more Republican then they really would only have 59 votes and not the 60 needed to end debate. Democrat Nelson will “compromise” as Democrat/Marxist Landrieu etc. did. All Democrats knew they were going to vote for government run healthcare and so for government funded abortion.

Hey liberals, liberals in the media,and liberals posing as conservatives and liberals everywhere enjoy the socialist utopia you will impose on America for tomorow it is you liberals who will starve in the streets as slaves of the government. You will starve because you killed the golden goose, capitalism.

[wmfights]

A final Bill without the anti-Abortion amendment will never pass the final vote in the House.

What they'll do is put in language about "for the health of the mother" which will include the big loophole of "psychological harm of keeping the baby".

BTW

Merry Christmas :)

[Man50D]

It is you GOP Bashers that gave the Marxists/Democrats those 60 votes so that they have ABSOLUTE POWER.

This tire old OP(formerly the GOP)line couldn't be more disingenuous. The OP did itself in by abandoning it's Conservative base long ago to appease more socialist thinking in order to expand the voter base. You're unrealistic if you honestly think Conservatives would remain. It's the political version of battered wife syndrome.

[malkee]

I think that comment was made in jest.

[NorwegianViking]

United States Defense Secretary Cohen said in 1997:
“Others [terrorists] are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves… So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations…It’s real, and that’s the reason why we have to intensify our [counterterrorism] efforts.”

http://www.cheniere.org/references/cohen.htm

Secretary of Defense William Cohen at an April 1997 counterterrorism conference sponsored by former Senator Sam Nunn. Quoted from DoD News Briefing, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, Q&A at the Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and U.S. Strategy, University of Georgia, Athens, Apr. 28, 1997.
Google HAARP and earthquake for more info. You might also want to Google “weather modification”.

[OldDeckHand]

"I really don’t remember George W. Bush and the Republican Congress and Senate having this much problem in 2001."

Did they have a majority in both houses in 2001, or did that not come until 2002? I really can't remember. I thought Daschle was the majority leader, at least until 2002, but I could be wrong.

[mwl8787]

It was a tie until mid-2001, when Jeffords of Vermont flipped to the RATS, making Daschle the majority leader.

The GOP won the majority back in 2002 — a stunning political and historic development.

[dervish]

Thanks. Very interesting.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

Whatever they pass goes to conference where the House bill and Senate bill are put together into 1 bill. The bill that comes out of conference goes back to the House and back to the Senate where a simple majority passes the bill and it then goes to the Pres.

No, they would still need 60 votes in the senate.

[ichabod1]

Read the bill. Read the bill. What good is read the bill when it takes two days and two lawyers to tell you what it says?

[ichabod1]

Well it makes me wonder if government payer abortion wasn’t the driving factor behind this whole thing. They shure won’t take it out.

[mad_as_he$$]

Harry does not have 51 votes let alone 59 or he would of already tried cloture.

[SunkenCiv]

Barack Obama hasn't even addressed the issue of abortion with Nelson directly. That's a pretty interesting picture of disinterest coming from the Oval Office on what is supposed to be Obama's highest priority on his domestic agenda.

Above his pay grade.

[mad_as_he$$]

I have maintained for months that abortion would be the final key to 0cares life or death.

[SeattleBruce]

Nelson’s lasted longer than Joe did..the longer he holds out, the better...having them miss their precious ‘deadline’ is nothing but good...

Next miss to shoot for - bammy’s SOTU address...

[SeattleBruce]

I really don’t remember George W. Bush and the Republican Congress and Senate having this much problem in 2001.
++++++++++++++++++

Think about it though - the Republican agenda for government is so much more limited than the RAT agenda for government, that’s *despite* the hugely untoward detriment of big gubmint RINOS. My point is that Bush wasn’t coming in trying to turn over the apple cart - 9/11 sure did, and that’s what defined Bush, and a big chunk of additional spending as well. Bush really fell down with the prescription drug debacle - that was not wise. Other ways and means to go about that - free market ways (tax incentives, creating transparency in medical costs, etc. etc.)

[SeattleBruce]

McConnell is saying that the Senate will have to vote on a bill that no one has seen. Here is what he said via Drudge’s headline.

“And here’s the most outrageous part: at the end of this rush, they want us to vote on a bill that no one outside the Majority Leader’s conference room has even seen. That’s right. The final bill we’ll vote on isn’t even the one we’ve had on the floor. It’s the deal Democrat leaders have been trying to work out in private’”
+++++++++++++++++

McConnel needs to follow that with some fist pounding, marching around and getting really POd and say - THIS ISN’T RIGHT. This is just NOT RIGHT!! The American people have had JUST ABOUT HAD ENOUGH of these BACK ROOM, CIGAR FILLED, SECRET MEETINGS that are going to EFFECT THEM AND THEIR CHILDREN FOR GENERATIONS!!!

Then scream at the top of his lungs - WHAT ARE THEY HIDING!? WHY CAN’T WE SEE AND READ THE BILL..??!!

Now Mitch - if you did that, it would make the MSM - and you’d be our new hero.