Reid Won't Get Health Care Vote for Christmas

All Harry Reid wants for Christmas is a health care reform vote, but he’s more likely to end up with coal. Republicans are pulling out every procedural trick in the book to make sure Democrats miss their self-imposed deadline—yesterday, they forced the Senate clerk to read a 767-page amendment aloud, an exercise Democrats finally put a stop to at the 3-hour mark.

Reid, meanwhile, still hasn’t worked out a 60-vote compromise, with Ben Nelson being the main holdout. Bob Casey presented Nelson with alternate language restricting federal financing of abortion yesterday, but Nelson was noncommittal about it; a pro-life group called it “entirely unacceptable.” Desperate Democrats tell Politico they still have a plan to get the vote in, with one scenario putting the final tally at 7pm on Christmas Eve (More Harry Reid stories.)