Kennedy's seat to turn Republican

[DaShi]

DaShi is wrong, as usual. There's no way a Republican is going to win Ted Kennedy's seat.

I've never been wrong. And I say that he will win.

[Ben Kenobi]

You ****er SHUT THE **** UP until it happens you have to assume it won't happen OR IT WON'T.

Kuci.

I have trained you well.

[Theben]

How do you train someone who has you on ignore?

[DanS]

[q]No; only certain portions of the bill can be passed via reconciliation. If the House doesn't pass the Senate bill unchanged and they decide to use reconciliation, the Dems will have to go back to the drawing board to figure out which parts of healthcare reform can be passed via reconciliation and which will still have to be subject to cloture.

You might have to change some Senate rules, yes. As stated, the entertainment value would go way up.

[Dinner]

How do you train someone who has you on ignore?

[Drake Tungsten]

You might have to change some Senate rules, yes.

If you're willing to risk changing Senate rules in spite of all the controversy and blowback that might entail, why not just invoke the nuclear option and pass the entire healthcare reform bill with 50 votes?

[Dinner]

Yes, if you're going to mess with the rules then you might as well go all the way but we all know they won't do that. If Brown wins then the most likely result would be even Harry Reid will grow a pair of balls and go for reconciliation without consulting the various committee heads (which would require several 60 vote procedural votes). If they used the Republican tactic of skipping the committee heads and just have the two leaders come up with the reconciliation bill then only 51 votes are needed. That's dirty but technically legal; perversely it would probably result in a better bill since they'd only need 50 votes plus the VP's vote instead of the full 60 votes.

[Drake Tungsten]

I love that Oerdin still seems to think that the Dems can pass anything remotely similar to the current healthcare reform bill via reconciliation and admire his dogged persistence in being wrong.

[notyoueither]

You might have to change some Senate rules, yes.

If you're willing to risk changing Senate rules in spite of all the controversy and blowback that might entail, why not just invoke the nuclear option and pass the entire healthcare reform bill with 50 votes?

Honest question:

Why is passing legislation with a majority considered a nuclear option?

[Drake Tungsten]

Why is passing legislation with a majority considered a nuclear option?

The "nuclear option" refers to circumventing the Senate rules that allow for 41 Senators to filibuster.

[GePap]

I think its still more probable that Coakley will win than Brown, but I would not be surprised if Brown won at this point. If Coakley wins, i think perversely the reason will be all the attention given to the race now. Brown's supporters are fired up, and in a special election at an odd time of year, with what would likely be terrible turnout, he would win with a fired up base- now that the Democratic party in Mass. has woken up, all the GOTV operations will be running on overtime due to panic, and perhaps the bulk of Dems. in Mass. who assumed they didn't need to vote cause the outcome was a done deal will actually go vote. If anything, all the publicity will remind a lot of people that there is an election on Tuesday, which would benefit Coakley more than Brown.

[Drake Tungsten]

I think its still more probable that Coakley will win than Brown

QFT

Everything GePap said is exactly right, which is why Coakley will win.

[Bosh]

It'll all come down to turnout. Low turnout means the Brown, high turnout means Coakley.

[DanS]

Low turnout means that the organization that can get people to the polls wins. In Massachusetts, that's the Democratic Party.

[notyoueither]

Why is passing legislation with a majority considered a nuclear option?

The "nuclear option" refers to circumventing the Senate rules that allow for 41 Senators to filibuster.

Ta.

Do majorities ever stare down a fillibuster? Say they dare the Republicans to shut down the Senate for other business and see who blinks first?