After his abortion amendment did not win the day on the Senate floor, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) did not come out swinging. Though he insisted that the failure of his abortion amendment “makes it harder to be supportive” of Senate health care bill, he did not reiterate his pledge to filibuster the bill.
“We’ll just have to see what develops,” Nelson told reporters. “I have no plan B.”
That allows him substantial wiggle room, if he ultimately decides not to defect from the health care bill, and indeed, after the vote Nelson returned to private negotiations with liberals and other conservative Democrats over the public option.
He’s not a firm no vote just yet.
“Not at this point in time. I want to continue to work on the [public option compromise] to see if that can improve the bill from my perspective.”