Obamacare "DOA" in Senate

Let's hope so, but we'll see:

Don't look for the Senate to quickly follow the House on health care overhaul.

A government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the Senate. They're locked in a battle with liberals, with the fate of President Obama's signature issue at stake.

If a government plan is part of the deal, "as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent whose vote Democrats need to overcome GOP filibusters.

"The House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said.

Democrats did not line up to challenge him. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has yet to schedule floor debate and hinted last week that senators may not be able to finish health care this year.

Nonetheless, the House vote provided an important lesson in how to succeed with less-than-perfect party unity, and one that Senate Democrats may be able to adapt. House Democrats overcame their own divisions and broke an impasse that threatened the bill after liberals grudgingly accepted tougher restrictions on abortion funding, as abortion opponents demanded.

The liberals didn't "grudgingly accept tougher restrictions on abortion funding", they played the pro-life crowd like a cheap violin. The liberals voted for the bill even with the amendment banning abortion funding because they were promised that restriction would be removed should the a bill ever make it to a conference committee.

Both the House bill and bills working through the Senate include the massively expensive public option plan, and that's what's going to hang them up in the Senate. Voters are rebelling against out-of-control federal spending and the huge growth of government, and let's not forget that Senators have a tougher time keeping their jobs than do House members. Each House member comes from a carefully gerrymandered district designed to keep incumbents in office, while Senators have to be elected by the entire state. Voter revolts are more likely to knock out Senators.

Obama is pushing Harry Reid to get something done before Christmas, but that's unlikely with the GOP (and Joe Lieberman's) opposition that's lining up. If Sen. Coburn goes through with this threat to make them read the 2,000 page bill aloud every time such a reading opportunity comes up, they could be there a long, long time.