I take this as a sign that there really is serious negotiation going on between the House and the Senate to push through Obamacare with a House vote on the Senate bill plus a reconciliation sidecar.
Otherwise, I doubt Landrieu would pick this moment to focus attention on, and defend, the Louisiana purchase.
Since the Democrats don’t need to build public support for Obamacare, in fact they would prefer to see the spotlight moved to something else, we won’t know if they have the votes for it until they announce the votes in the House and the Senate committees. The negotiations, the threats, the bribes, the backroom deals, and the language of the legislation will all be hidden until sprung at the last minute after all the deals have been completed and the votes counted.
Then, it will be up to the Republicans to see if they are willing to shut down Senate business indefinitely by offering endless amendments, and up to the Democrats to see if they are willing to use nuclear tactics to cut off debate.
I think the Democrats are willing to go nuclear in terms of parliamentary tactics in order to get it passed, IF they can get the votes sewn up beforehand.
I don’t think the House vote will be difficult to cobble together if the Senate is willing to do a reconciliation sidecar.
The question is whether there are 50 senators willing to go that route. It is quite possible. We’ll see over the next several weeks.
I think your analysis of Landrieu's impetus for commenting now is an interesting one. I hope you're wrong, but I fear you're right.
I can't quite figure out what their actual end-game is with this Budget Reconciliation process on the Obamacare bill. Technically, they (the House) could just adopt the Senate bill. But, that assumes that they could get the 217 votes to pass the Senate bill - I'm not sure that they could. Even if they could, such a maneuver would likely face Constitutional problems with a revenue bill originating in the Senate, and not the House as the Constitution demands.
Furthermore, I recognize that the House libs aren't happy with the Senate's bill. But, I don't see how the Budget Reconciliation process helps the libs get to where they need to be. Because of legal limitations of the Budget Reconciliation, it would actually make it harder, not easier for the libs to pass non-budgetary provisions of their health-care plan.
Of course, the House could pass the bill they want (assuming that they could get the votes now) and then use the Nuclear option in the Senate to get it passed. I doubt Reid can get 50 votes to go nuclear. It might be close, but I don't think he can get there.