Sen. Reid is currently meeting with Sens. Nelson, Landrieu and Lincoln — the three key health care reform hold outs — apparently to give them a special preview of the briefing on the bill and the much-anticipated report from CBO.

Interestingly, Biden’s up at the senate today to try to nail things down on behalf of the White House. But he’s not in the meeting.

We’ve been documenting the reach alleged Florida Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein had into Florida political circles. But it wasn’t just Florida. He held a couple of fundraisers for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) last year, including one in connection with the LSU-Florida football game in Gainesville.

Sen. Mary Landrieu’s campaign turned over $25,300 in campaign contributions to the U.S. Treasury last year, a move that appears to have been intended to disgorge contributions that were legally questionable. But at the same time the campaign calls the move “routine” — a description one campaign finance expert calls “bullshit” — and refuses to provide any details about who the contributor was or why the campaign coughed up the money. CREW is now filing an FEC complaint. What gives?

By the time you clear away the hedging, the throat-clearing, and the self-serving rationalizations, it looks like a new statement just issued by Sen. Ben Nelson signals that he will vote with Democrats to bring the health care reform bill to the Senate floor.

If this were international diplomacy, you might say Nelson has finally agreed to the shape and size of the table at which the peace talks will be held. Bold move.

The CBO scoring of the Dems’ senate health care bill are out and they’re scoring it at $849 Billion.

For those keeping score at home, that’s a “good” number for the Dems.

Fox caught splicing in 2008 campaign footage to make Sarah Palin book tour crowd look enormous.

So with a merged Senate bill finally on the table (note that it’s now Nov. 18), leadership is considering filing for cloture on the motion to proceed tomorrow, Brian Beutler reports. That sets up a weekend vote, requiring 60 votes, on whether to end debate on the motion to proceed and probably a vote early next week, requiring a simple majority vote, on the motion itself to bring the bill to the Senate floor.

Ed. note: The post has been edited from the original.

Who is such a coward or so craven that they can’t agree with this statement?

Attorney General Eric Holder: “I’m not scared of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has to say at trial. And no one else needs to be afraid either.”

I think these two sentences from Marc Ambinder are in a certain tension with each other …

If Palin gets smarter and more serious, if she embraces reality, then she can probably change the perception that many Americans have of her. Palin can be formidable and a real player in American politics, if she wants to.

What a pity that so many pixels have to die a meaningless death just to spin out narratives about how this ignoramus can cease to be who she is.

(ed.note: This post has been revised since first publication. Though I had originally used the word ‘moron’, I decided this was too ungenerous, harsh and perhaps even inaccurate and opted for the more descriptive and I think appropriate ‘ignoramus’.)

The Washington Times‘ acting publisher addresses the turmoil at his paper in a statement to readers set to run in tomorrow’s paper. We have an advance copy.