Brinksmanship.

Nelson's vote gets tabled and TPM is surprised to find Nelson "conciliatory" and with "no Plan B?" Why the continued insistence over at TPM that politicians actually mean anything they say publicly? We've had a steady drip of "information" about Susan Collins, Snowe, Nelson, and Lieberman which is predicated on the notion that they are definitively telling us how they will, or won't, vote on a particular motion, or amendment, or on the HCR bill when it gets to the floor. But the one thing that is clear is that no statement, no matter how impassioned, can't be reneged on, or superseded by some new circumstance. Nelson talked a good game but they called his bluff. Now he has to decide whether he is willing to continue to talk trash and threaten to derail the entire health care bill or whether he wants to stay relevant. Its obvious that he wants to stay relevant since he has now renounced, for the moment, any clear statement of antagonism to the bill as a whole. If I were Reid and the Dems I would be thinking hard about how to find something for Nelson to feel good about so he can stop thrashing around and acting like an asshole just to get attention. Me? I'd offer him the chance to be the deciding vote, the 60th vote, on each cloture motion from now on so he can have his name in the history books. I'd tell him I'd let everyone know he fought hard and was no cheap date but a man of integrity. And then I'd tell him that if he doesn't Nebraska never gets another dime of federal earmark money and no Democrat will sponsor any legislation with him, or vote for anything he sponsors. Call his bluff. And kick his ass. Hard.