No CBO score tonight. Which might seem like sort of an obscure and technical matter, except for it pushes the big vote back till Sunday.

TPM Reader JO checks in from the Lone Star State …

I’m on a telephone town hall with my representative (unfortunately) Jeb Hensarling. Most of the callers are elderly and ill-informed. Sadly, they probably get most of their information from Fox News like my parents do. It’s interesting to hear all the misconceptions floating around out there. This being Texas, a lot of the calls are about abortion. I’ve heard at least 2 callers complain about the federal funding of abortion they believe is part of the HCR bill. They mentioned Mexicans getting free abortions and even Chinese (???) abortions – whatever that means. Hensarling spouts the usual talking points. He promotes his support of HB 4529 which includes tax credits, medical liability reform, and a “template for price and quality transparency”. Mainly, I am appalled at the ignorance of the constituents asking the questions. However, I’m pleasantly surprised that at least 20% of the calls are in favor of the president and HCR. They come mainly from Dallas. Current woman suggested the Joint Chiefs should be convened to unseat “this illegal presidency” (!!! yikes, that’s crazy even for TX) There is a lot of discussion of the constitutionality of the government’s actions and talk of our “republic” rather than our “democracy” – telling language.

Earlier today, MSNBC’s David Shuster seemed to get Rep. John Shadegg, a very conservative congressman from Arizona, to say that he’d support a “single payer” health care system.

Our Rachel Slajda followed up with the congressman’s office to see what was up. And his office just responded …

Congressman Shadegg believes health insurance companies should have to compete for our business as individual consumers. Forcing them to compete, even through a public option, would be better than an individual mandate which will not work.

Whatever happens with Health Care Reform or the November election, I think we can say that having the American Idol kids sing from the Rolling Stones songbook was a profoundly misguided, perhaps tragic decision.

So sue me, I’m watching on DVR. Just got back to New York tonight.

All crystal clear. From Bob’s new post …

I was serving in the Clinton administration at the time. In the first months of 1993 it looked as if Clinton’s health care proposal would sail through Congress. But the process dragged on and by 1994 it bogged down. We knew health care was imperiled but none of us knew that failure to pass health care would doom much of the rest of Clinton’s agenda and wrest control of Congress out of the hands of the Democrats. In retrospect, it’s clear Republicans did know.

Read the whole thing.

It seems there are two candidates vying to be governor of Georgia who had their high school teaching licenses suspended for misconduct with underaged female students.

Normally you have to really look around to find a governor’s race with even one candidate with ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ situation. But two!

Do I hear three!?!?

Colbert: Beck broadcasts on a special frequency only white people can hear. Watch it.

A number of TPM Readers wrote in over recent days telling us they’d called Rep. Eliot Engel’s (D-NY) office and been told, to their surprise, that he was leaning against voting for the Health Care Reform bill. The issue was over Medicaid reimbursement rates and regulations and his concern the bill disadvantaged New York for its particularly generous policies. But that’s now been changed in the current reconciliation bill. And Engel just told our Brian Beutler that while he won’t commit to anything without seeing the exact language, if the changes are as they’ve been described to him, that he’s now on board.

Dennis Kucinich didn’t just switch his own vote on Reform. He’s now helping House leadership whip the vote with other wavering members, something colleagues find astonishing and say they’ve never seen him do before.

In the final haggling to get the “Cadillac tax” issue resolved and get the budget and deficit numbers right, the House and White House had to really think outside the box to find a way that would get the numbers right and keep the unions on board. It looks like they squared the circle. But it’s required some final, unscheduled meetings with Richard Trumka yesterday at the White House. And Trumka’s meeting with the AFL’s executive council this afternoon before a final decision is made. Brian Beutler’s got the latest.