HEAVYWEIGHT DEM SAYS "NO" – AT 4:02 P.M. ET:  The floor whips are supposed to keep the House members in line.  But what one of them isn't in line?  From the Boston Herald:

Even one of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s floor whips, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, says a proposed parliamentary move to pass health-care reform would be “disingenuous” and harm the credibility of Congress.

In a sign of how tough it’s been for Pelosi to round up votes for the massive bill, Lynch - a South Boston Democrat who supported a House reform package last year - said he’ll probably vote against a key Senate version of the legislation, unless unexpected major changes are made soon.

Lynch, who serves as one of Pelosi’s key vote counters, said he also can’t support a proposed “deem and pass” procedure that would allow Democrats to vote to strip out controversial portions of the Senate bill and then “deem” that the entire package has passed without a second, direct vote.

COMMENT:  Nightmare weekend is coming up.  They're going to try to slam this through, with the president staying in town as chief enforcer.

The leader of North Korea must be sitting at his TV saying, "So that's how you do it."

March 18, 2010