Whip Count
Republican Whip Eric Cantor does the math, and says Democrats are eight votes short:
38 Democrats are needed to defeat a government take-over of health care.
· Of the original 37 Democrat NO votes, 4 have publicly switched their votes to “yes”:
o John Boccieri, Bart Gordon, Dennis Kucinich, and Betsy Markey. “
· That means there are 33 current Democrat NO votes left. Unless those 33 Democrats want to dispute our characterization of their position, that’s a fact. Here’s a few from that group who might want to dispute they’re a no, so we’re watching them with a close eye:
o Jason Altmire, Brian Baird, Allen Boyd, Suzanne Kosmas, Michael McMahon, Scott Murphy, John Tanner, and Harry Teague.
· Seemingly, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a comfortable victory if she only has 33 NO votes…..but that ignores 2 groups.
· The first group is from a pool of original “yes” votes who are in conservative-leaning districts, and know that a government take-over is widely unpopular. It seems clear that Speaker Pelosi could lose any one of these Members—in fact, it appears she’s already lost at least one:
o Michael Arcuri, Marion Berry, Jim Costa, Gabby Giffords, Stephen Lynch, and Zach Space.
· The second group is very well-known by now for taking a principled stand:
o The “Stupak 12.” Only Mr. Stupak knows exactly who his 12 are and we respect their privacy.
· So, if we add 12 to 33, we get 45—which leaves Speaker Pelosi 8 votes short.
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March 19th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Gabby Giffords is a “Yes”. There was never any doubt. She calls herself a bluedog, but she is one of Pelosi’s lackeys. She’s in very deep trouble in AZ-8.
March 19th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Murphy and Suzanne Kosmas are yesses.
It’s over.
Now it’s up to the Senate to tie this up, if it goes there.
If not, the courts.
After that, accept it or hit the streets.
March 19th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
I Do the math and it keeps coming up D= Assholes.
It may have something to do wth the beer I spilt on the Calculator….
March 20th, 2010 at 7:48 am
They have the votes, folks. Several centrists have joined the yes vote.