The President will speak to the cameras from the East Room of the White House tonight once the House vote is final.
I mentioned a few days ago that what Republican senators are focused on in the Senate is using every procedural angle they can to keep the ‘Cornhusker Kickback’ and all the other most unpopular parts of the Senate bill in the bill. In other words, they’re going to make themselves the defenders of everything they’ve been hammering for months.
And something similar is going to happen in the House. The ‘fix’ bill includes getting rid of the ‘Cornhusker Kickback’ and all the other ‘special deal’ stuff in the original senate bill. And every House Republican is about to vote against it.
Rep. Steve King (R-IA), on racial and gay slurs being hurled at Democratic congressmen: “I just don’t think it’s anything. … There are a lot of places in this country that I couldn’t walk through. I wouldn’t live to get to the other end of it.”
David Frum tweets:
if HCR prevails, Republicans need an accountability moment. Jim DeMint/ Rush / Beck etc. [l]ed us to Waterloo all right . Ours.
Late Update: More from Frum:
We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.
There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?
Do they have the votes? With agreement, Stupak tells reporters, “We are well past 216, yes.”
The White House has just released the final text of the executive order which is the basis of the aforementioned agreement with the Stupak group.
We’ve been hearing conflicting word through the day on a deal with the White House which would bring Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and what remains of his group of pro-life Dem hold-outs into the Yes column. Broadly speaking that executive order from the president will clarify whatever ambiguities the Stupak group believes remains in the Senate wording on the non-use of federal funds for abortion. But obviously, the devil’s in the details. And the details are still not clear. Late word we’re getting is that that deal has just been finalized. We expect to hear more shortly.
A press conference with Stupak and others will start momentarily. Our Brian Beutler is there.
After canceling press conferences yesterday and earlier today, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) has scheduled yet another one, for 4 p.m. ET. We’ll have a reporter there and bring you what happens when it does.
Late Update: The Hill is now reporting that deal on abortion language has been struck and that Stupak and his cohort will vote yes.
With all the bustle and hubbub on the Hill today, not long ago three members of Congress went out onto the balcony to literally salute the assembling Tea Party protestors. Here’s they unfurl a Gadsden flag (“Don’t Tread on Me”) to honor the protestors. I’m not sure there’s anything wrong in the narrow sense with unfurling a flag to express camaraderie with protestors. But change the clothes and hair styles a bit and it looks a like the images you see from some of the late-60s, early 70s campus takeover protests …
