Will Concessions, And A Trim CBO Score, Appease Conservative Democrats On Health Care?

How did Bush get past cloture with much less than 60 seats? Let me guess, Sen. Reid didn't require one, whereas McConnell reuires one one every bill no matter how big or small. And in cases where they were required, I bet the Dems who voted for cloture also voted against the final bill came from the same pool of Dems now accepting the GOP frame that "A vote for cloture would be a vote for the final bill" and parroting that quote to anybody who will listen.

Republicans need 50%+1 majority, Dems need 60 seat super majority. Funny how that works. When are the Dems going to go on offense with the bald faced obstructionism? They can't because they have 60 seats, so it's on the Dems if they can't get their own bills through. Specter switching was the worst thing that could have happened.

i still simply cannot fathom the continuing abuse victim mentality among the red state Democrats that if only they will vote correctly, the Republicans won't beat them up them next election.

Mary and Ben do not need convincing. There is nothing substantial with respect to the bill to convince them about. They have been bought by corporate interests and now they are both between a rock and a hard place. Their excuses have flown out the window and there is no sound reason to obstruct. They have to decide. It is up to the voters to make them understand that it will be far more harmful to them to screw the voters than their corporate benefactors. They have been led to believe over and over again that there is no price to pay for shafting the people. Let them know that this is NOT TRUE.

I think we need to just accept the ridiculously conservative senate and move ahead. It looks like Reid insists on keeping the filibuster. As such, we need to address Mary and Ben separately, later, once the votes are tallied and we have a form of a public option.

The democratic party is absolutely pathetic and I see no other viable alternative to it in our duopoly, winner-take-all system. After eight years in exile, you forget how aweful the democratic party actually is, and remember why voting for Nadar, (so long as you don't live in Florida), was not a bad idea.
It is hard for the democratic base to rally around this bill, and if the Carper sleight of hand is introduced or Stupak nonsense added, the democratic majority is looking at a historic route in 2010.
The democratic party as a group, Obama included, has no moral fiber, conviction or substance. Democrats are a sheer negation of some of the most extremist positions in the increasingly radical republican party. The most devasting aspect of this "disenchantment" of the base, is that it will be all the more dramatic, as it follows a paroxysm of optimism following 2008.
Although at first one may have harbored some hopes that Obama's bipartisan approach may have been a strategical ploy, it now appears simply hopelessly weak, naive, and passive. The democratic party has let every major substantive piece of reform be defined and framed by the republican party and their facilitators in the MSM. Because Obama has been so reactive in all his decisions, even when his administration does take such strong moral positions such as 9/11 trial decision, they appear weak and "defensive."