Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI) was just on the floor saying the abortion compromise goes to the heart of the ‘executive order abuse’, which he claimed was a major Dem issue in the last election. Not sure he was trying to confuse that with the issue of ‘signing statements’ or talking about secret executive orders. Who knows? He managed to get in references to Democratic complaints about Bush era detention and torture policies using executive orders. Sad.

With regard to the sequence of votes this evening, some changes since what we reported yesterday. The House has taken up the Senate bill first and will vote on it after two hours of allotted debating time. Then they will move immediately to the reconciliation bill that amends the Senate bill they will have, presumably, just passed. The final votes are expected sometime after 10 p.m.

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) discusses the gavel he used during the Medicare debate and passage in 1965 and how he plans to use the same one this evening.

AFL-CIO Richard Trumka tells TPM that the unions will remember which Democrats voted against health care reform. Responding to our question about the decision by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) to vote no, Trumka said: “[T]hat’ll be part of what we look at when endorsements comes. This will be a big one. This will have more weight than a lot of the other little ones.”

NOW says it is “incensed” over the abortion deal President Obama has struck to get health care reform passed.

David Frum explains how today is turning into the GOP’s Waterloo.

See video below the fold. Read More

The House is now voting on the “rule.” Now what does that mean? It’s not “the” vote. That will come later. Rather it’s the vote that sets up the ground rules for the next two votes. Sort of deep into the procedural mumbojumbo but a very big deal.

Late Update: And it just went over the 216 required for passage.

Republicans now holding press conference concern-trolling Bart Stupak and company.

Bachmann: “This is the rule of law not the rule of man.”

Read our full report here.

Just a bit of background on what we’re likely to see tonight. With the Stupak deal in place, it seems close to certain that the bill will pass tonight, probably with a few votes to spare (though we’ll have to see if they let in Red district Dems vote no since they have votes to spare). The current GOP plan seems to be to try a series of procedural gambits this afternoon and this evening to force enough delays to push the final vote until late, late into the evening. And then politick on the basis of Dems passing the bill “in the middle of the night.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) makes her way from the Canon House Office Building to the Capitol this afternoon carrying a ceremonial gavel, escorted by Reps. John Lewis (D-GA) and John Larson (D-CT):

A short video clip of her procession through the protests here.