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Landrieu To Vote For Health Care Debate

Brian Beutler | November 21, 2009, 12:30PM

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Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)

Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Health Care, Mary Landrieu, Senate

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The suspense has lifted. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) will announce on the Senate floor this afternoon that she will vote to debate health care legislation.

When she does, she will join her colleague Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), another conservative Democrat, in the "yes" column. The lone holdout at this point is Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), who has yet to publicly announce her intentions.

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DonDavis

November 21, 2009 12:38 PM

Harry Reid Prepared to Take Unprecedented Steps for Votes of Lincoln and Landrieu
http://satiricalpolitical.com/2009/11/21/harry-reid-senate-vote-health-reform-landrieu-lincoln/

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pirate jenny

November 21, 2009 1:15 PM in reply to DonDavis

please, stop spamming. thanks.

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Maritza

November 21, 2009 12:47 PM

Every Democrat is going to vote for cloture. I think this drama is for show. Senators always want to be the center of attention.

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ohyeathatsright

November 21, 2009 12:52 PM in reply to Maritza

Just like every GOPer will vote against. It's all a charade this time around.

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lousgirl84

November 21, 2009 12:53 PM in reply to Maritza

Exactly!! Especially Landrieu = she seems to bask in it.

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FlownOver

November 21, 2009 1:01 PM

Her statement included the rationale that "doing nothing is not an option." It may be kinda hard to walk that back.

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TaosJohn

November 21, 2009 1:04 PM

Very disappointed. The bill deserves to die. There's no health, no care, and no reform in it. Passing this pile of dreck, a total giveaway for the insurance industry, will only sabotage any future efforts at providing true universal coverage for all.

I'm very, very sorry that the progressive blogosphere has gotten caught up in the "win vs. lose" dynamic and lost sight of the fact that BOTH the House and the Senate bills are terrible betrayals of the American people.

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numediaman

November 21, 2009 1:06 PM

Yes, it is indeed a charade. There was never, ever a chance she wouldn't vote for cloture.

But the question is this: are there 50 votes for the bill? If so, don't be surprised if Reid let's her vote "no".

Nelson and Landrieu's hope would be that there are 49, then she can extract the maximum in order to get her to vote "yes".

I think there are probably a dozen real votes for yes (those who actually have a clue what is in the bill and why they think it is a good idea), and a dozen votes no (those who actually have a clue what is in the bill and why they think it is a bad idea), everyone else is simply doing what they think is best politically or economically (personally).

It is sad to see the U.S. government work this way. The system is truly broken.

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hewhohasnoname

November 21, 2009 1:16 PM in reply to numediaman

They might have 50 votes. The problem right now is cloture...

Now, it seems that everyone is explicitly onboard for cloture, except Lincoln. She's playing her cards close to the chest, though I'm guessing she won't be the lone hold-out. But, at this point, who knows? I don't think most people believed that it would be so difficult to get Democrats to pass legislation that is a major plank of the Democratic platform.

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midnight rambler

November 21, 2009 2:27 PM in reply to hewhohasnoname

Maybe the Democrats might hold together for cloture (it's absurd that we're even having this discussion about bringing the vote to the floor, which I'd never heard for any bill before). But there are only 58 Democrats, plus Sanders; vote #60 is Lieberman, who is worthless.

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