United Liberty

It doesn’t look like things are all well and good among Democrats in the Senate:

Fissures between liberal and centrist Democrats cracked open on Sunday in the aftermath of a procedural vote, which paved the way for the estimated $848bn draft Senate bill to be debated on the floor. Leaders hope there will be a vote on the bill by Christmas. If passed, the House and Senate versions will have to be mashed together.

If this weekend is anything to go by, it will not be a pretty process. All Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents voted to push the bill forward – creating a filibuster-proof majority of 60 – but some of those votes came far from quietly. A group of centrist Democrats, unhappy about elements of the bill such as a public insurance option, managed to wring concessions from the leadership in return for their acquiescence.

In what wags have already dubbed the “Louisiana Purchase”, Mary Landrieu was offered at least $100m in extra federal money for her state. Ben Nelson won the omission of a provision that would strip health insurers of their anti-trust exemption. Blanche Lincoln won more time.
[…]
The weekend’s vote was a victory for Harry Reid, Senate leader, but he acknowledged that it was simply an opening skirmish in a battle that is now set to break into full force. Much of that battle will take place within his own party.

“Tonight’s vote is not the end of the debate,” he said on Saturday night. “It is only the beginning.”

Does anyone not believe that Sen. Mary Landrieu was not bribed for her vote? She obviously says she wasn’t, but it pretty transparent what went on there. Unfortunately, that’s how Congress works. Funny thing was listening to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) talk about how it was ethical because it was within Senate rules.

I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but The Distinguished Gentleman (starring Eddie Murphy) really reminds me of Congress. It doesn’t matter who is in control because once they get there, they fall in love with the smell of the marble.

Without getting into too many of the details of the movie, Murphy’s character winds up being exposed and his rap sheet, but points out that everything he had ever down, whether it was bribery, extortion, theft and so on would have been considered legitimate in Congress.

If Harry Reid and Mary Landrieu pulled this in private business, people would be comparing it to Enron and screaming for the end of capitalism.

Anyway, in the end, Reid knows he can’t pass this with a government-run plan, so I’m willing to bet that it gets tossed soon. However, the House wants that and probably won’t pass a reform bill without it. Basically, we’re still a long way off from seeing anything passed.