Greg Sargent at the Plum Line says Obama wouldn't adopt this mocking tone of Republicans unless it was in the bag. He also thinks the Dems are releasing some vulnerable members, like Jim Matheson and Zack Space of Ohio, saying it's okay for them to vote "no" because they don't need them. They've got the votes.

Here's a rough schedule of tomorrow's vote timeline: [More..]

Via TNR's Jonathan Cohn at Twitter:

No deem and pass. Separate vote on Senate bill.

How out to lunch are the protesters? From a few hours ago, via Cohn:

Rally speaker just attacked Obama obesity initiative: "Michelle, keep your hands off my kids' lunchbox"

A new deal seems to be in the works on abortion and the health care bill. It's mostly on Twitter. Seems President Obama is considering issuing an executive order to prevent funding of abortions -- rather than including it in the bill.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) says acceptance depends on the details. Evan Glass at CNN reports "Pro-choice Dem women are giving the green light for Obama to sign an executive order reaffirming no fed $ for abortion"

So what's the executive order going to say? According to Glass, "Democrats are 7 "no" votes shy of the 216 needed to defeat the bill." Meaning they only can afford to lose 7 votes?

The House Rules Committee is in session setting up the rules for tomorrow's health care vote.

Stupak postponed his press conference on the abortion issue. What is he, the new Drama Queen? Pelosi says there will be no separate vote on his proposal.

Seems to me the bill is going to pass. It may be a squeaker, but it will pass.

Sen. Lindsey Graham is feeling his oats. His constituents ought to send him back to pasture. His latest: He threatens that if the health care bill passes, there will be no immigration reform this year.

“The first casualty of the Democratic health care bill will be immigration reform. If the health care bill goes through this weekend, that will, in my view, pretty much kill any chance of immigration reform passing the Senate this year,” Graham said in a statement blast-emailed to the Washington press corps.

Graham's influence over the detainee trials and Guantanamo is going to his head. The Dems should refuse to listen to him.

The Senate today passed a bill reducing but not eliminating the disparate 100:1 ratio between crack and powder cocaine penalties. The bill also includes enhanced penalties for some drug offenders -- such as for those who distribute to a person over 64 years of age.

This sucks. It takes 500 grams of powder to trigger a 5 year mandatory minimum penalty. Under current law, it takes 5 grams of crack. Now, 28 grams of crack will do the trick. So an ounce of crack will carry the same penalty as almost a pound of powder (500 grams is 1/2 kilo, a kilo is 2.2 pounds.) And 280 grams of crack (10 ounces) will trigger the 10 year mandatory minimum penalty while 5 kilos of powder are required.

Worst of all, the bill is not retroactive and the reduction won't help anyone who has already been sentenced.[More...]

Will the health care bill pass? Five more Dems said no today.

Five more House Democrats said Tuesday that they will vote against Senate health care legislation, which puts opponents of reform just 11 votes shy of the 216 needed to prevent President Obama from scoring a major victory on his top domestic priority.

Here's the list of 27 Democrats opposing the bill.

So here's the new plan. It's seems very convoluted -- and like something you do in the dark of night hoping nobody figures it out.

The House will say it doesn't have to vote on the Senate bill because it's already been passed by one house. They will present a little "sidecar" of a reconciliation bill, and it all goes right Obama for signature and the obvious proud statement he'll make: he's passed the most important legislation of the last three decades.

What do we get? No public option, for one thing. [More...]

President Obama promised to work to equalize crack and powder cocaine penalties. He said he would urge Congress to eliminate the five year mandatory minimum penalty for simple possession of 5 grams or more of crack and eliminate the 100:1 disparate ratio of penalties for crack vs. powder cocaine.

This morning, The Senate Judiciary Committee held a markup hearing on S.1789, The Fair Sentencing Act (Durbin, Leahy, Feingold, Cardin, Whitehouse, Kaufman, Specter, Franken.)

The result: A compromise. The 100:1 ratio and mandatory minimum sentences will not be eliminated, but reduced to 20:1. In other words, no equalization. Crack cocaine will continue to carry a penalty 20 times more severe than powder cocaine. Is it an improvement? Yes. Is it good enough? No.

The Dem's love affair with bi-partisanship continues: [More...]

Another disaster in the making: Via the ACLU, John McCain and Joe Lieberman have introduced the Enemy Belligerent Interrogation Interrogation, Detention and Prosecution Act of 2010.

The Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention and Prosecution Act of 2010, introduced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), would also create an entirely new system of interrogation by requiring intelligence officials to be consulted about how to handle terrorism suspects after their capture. The bill was precipitated by misguided objections to the Obama administration’s correct decision to charge accused Christmas Day attacker Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in the criminal court system. The legislation would have a “high value detainee” team, made up of members of different intelligence agencies, interrogate and determine whether alleged terrorist suspects are “unprivileged enemy belligerents.” If so, and if the suspect is then charged, the legislation would mandate the use of the discredited and unconstitutional military commissions.

[More...]

Greg Sargent writes:

Rep Frank Kratovil of Maryland, a previous No vote who was now said to be undecided, will vote No on the Senate health reform proposal, his spokesman confirms. [. . .] The only way Kratovil [. . .] could support the Senate bill is if it’s fixed first via reconciliation, before the House votes on it. But no one expects this to happen.

(Emphasis supplied.) I wonder if anyone expects anything to happen at all on the health bills. Rahmbo's finger pointing campaign the last week is beginning to make sense. The White House may think the initiative is actually dead.

Speaking for me only

What will the White House do about Bart Stupak?

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., today said he and 11 other House members will not vote for the health care bill unless it includes more stringent language to prevent federal funding from going toward abortion services [. . .] "I want to see health care pass. I agree... people are being priced out of the market. We must have health care but, boy, there are some principles and beliefs that some of us are not going to pass," he said.

My suggestion for solving the Stupak problem here.

Speaking for me only