Below The Beltway

Earlier today, I noted the racial epithets allegedly hurled at two African-American Members of Congress during yesterday’s Tea Party protests.
At virtually the same time, I was engaged in a Twitter conversation that started out with me saying this:
So anyone who opposes President Obama’s policies is a racist. Nice
Which prompted this unsolicited response from a Twitter [...]

David Dayen at the liberal (and pro-single payer) blog FireDogLake has been on top of the House whip count for two weeks now, and his latest tally is very interesting:
This brings the count to 204-206, with 11 undecided and 10 (still?) in the Stupak bloc. Even if the Stupak bloc has been whittled to a [...]

Tomorrow, I will be participating in a LiveBlog of the debate and vote on health care reform in the House of Representatives over at United Liberty.
The House convenes at 2:00, and we’ll be getting started around 1:30. All times Eastern.
Come join us.

If this really happened, then it’s pretty disgusting:
Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) claimed Saturday that healthcare protesters at the Capitol directed racial epithets at Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) as he walked outside.
Carson, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus along with Lewis, told The Hill that protesters called Lewis the N-word.
Tea Party protesters held a [...]

From First Read:
From the House Democratic Caucus meeting, this from House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (D-CT). He says “shortly after 2, we will have an hour of debate on the rule.” This is the rule to allow reconcilation to get to the floor.
They would then vote on the rule, sans deem and pass. He [...]

Ron Paul speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives September 23, 2009:

And, several days later, he made the same point during an interview with NPR:

Host: Now one of the strongest opponents of government intervention in reforming the healthcare industry is Congressman Ron Paul, Republican of Texas. He’s known to some as “Dr. No” [...]

The Washington Post reports:
House leaders have decided to take a separate vote on the Senate health-care bill, rejecting an earlier, much-criticized strategy that would have permitted them to “deem” the unpopular measure passed without an explicit vote.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Saturday that the House would take three votes Sunday: first, on a resolution [...]

It looks like the deal with Congressman Bart Stupak that I wrote about this morning may be off. First, the press conference that Stupak had scheduled for this morning was postponed/canceled.
At NRO, Robert Costa reports that Stupak is done dealing with the House leadership:
Two pro-life GOP members close to Stupak tell NRO that any Stupak [...]

John Boehner’s remarks this morning sound an awful lot like something a guy who doesn’t think he will win might say:
House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) for the first time admitted that Republicans were not likely to defeat health care reform legislation.
Boehner continued, however, to lambaste Democrats over pushing through the health care overhaul with [...]