I guess Harry Reid reached 60 votes for cloture late last night. I haven’t had a chance to look at the abortion language yet. Meanwhile, the Republicans are forcing the Senate clerk to read Reid’s manager’s amendment aloud on the floor. Despite that, it looks like the Senate will pass something before Christmas after all. I hope so. I have been wanting to get this bill to the Conference Committee for a long time. Once we are there, the pressure switches in favor of progressives. Yes, we’re very limited in what we can get without losing Nelson or Lieberman, or other ‘centrists.’ But we can make improvements and the centrists can no longer take those improvements out. Their choice will be to pass or kill the bill. No more stomping of feet, no more negotiating for pork or concessions. Yes or No. And that means we will have leverage for really the first time in this whole process.
Getting to Conference
