The House convenes at 2:00, and we’ll be getting started around 1:30. All times Eastern.

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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 rally outside the Capitol on Saturday, which included speeches by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and actor Jon Voight, and then proceeded into the halls to lobby members at the 11th hour.

(…)

Asked if racial epithets were yelled at him, Lewis responded, “Yes but it’s OK. I’ve heard this before in the 60s. A lot of this is just downright hate.”

Further details:

Abusive, derogatory and even racist behavior directed at House Democrats by Tea Party protesters on Saturday left several lawmakers in shock.

Preceding the president’s speech to a gathering of House Democrats, thousands of protesters descended around the Capitol to protest the passage of health care reform. The gathering quickly turned into abusive heckling, as members of Congress passing through Longworth House office building were subjected to epithets and even mild physical abuse.

A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-M.D.) had been spit on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-G.A.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a ‘ni–er.’ And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a “faggot,” as protestors shouted at him with deliberately lisp-y screams. Frank, approached in the halls after the president’s speech, shrugged off the incident.

But Clyburn was downright incredulous, saying he had not witnessed such treatment since he was leading civil rights protests in South Carolina in the 1960s.

Again, like I said, if this really happened then its despicable and whoever yelled the word is an ass.

And a racist.

On a related note, David Weigel took some interesting pictures during his trip to the Capitol this afternoon.

Update: Apparently not an isolated incident:

Early this afternoon, standing outside a Democratic whip meeting in the Longworth House office building, I watched Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) make his way out the door, en route to the neighboring Rayburn building. As he rounded the corner toward the exit, wading through a huge crowd of tea partiers and other health care protesters, an elderly white man screamed “Barney, you faggot”–a line that caused dozens of his confederates to erupt in laughter.

(…)

“If this was my cause, and I saw this angry group yelling and shouting and being so abusive to people, I would ask them to please stop it,” Frank concluded. “I think they do more harm than good.”

Congressman Frank, for once I agree with you.

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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 then says there will then be “two hours of debate on the bill.”

Larson did not elude to passing the Senate bill later. But he did say they would do this “in the light of day.”

Sunset in Washington D.C. tomorrow is at 7:21pm, so it could be a long, long day.

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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” for his opposition to tax hikes and for his refusal to vote for spending bills. He’s a doctor by training and OBGYN and he’s written a new book simply called “End the Fed” as in the Federal Reserve. I spoke with Ron Paul earlier. We started with health care, which he doesn’t believe is a fundamental right.

Ron Paul: I do not believe peoples’ needs or desires or wants or demands are rights. Once you do that you embark on a system of government that is uncontrollable. You have a right to your life, your liberty, and you should have a right to keep what you earn. So I do not believe medical care is a right and that’s one of the problems that we are facing today and why there’s so much confusion about what we ought to do about healthcare.

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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 that will set the terms of debate; second, on a package of amendments to the Senate bill that have been demanded by House members; and third, on the Senate bill itself.

Van Hollen, who has been working on the issue with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said House leaders concluded that that order — approving the amendments before approving the Senate bill — makes clear that the House intends to modify the Senate bill and not approve the Senate bill itself.

“Our objective all along was to make it clear that the House is amending the Senate bill, and we found another way of accomplishing that,” Van Hollen said in an interview.

House Democrats had considered “deeming” the Senate bill passed along with the amendment package, Pelosi said earlier this week, “because people don’t have to vote on the Senate bill.”

There’s no word, yes, as to why the Democrats decided to do it, but I’ve got two observations.

First, they would not be doing this at all if there was any real doubt in their mind that they’d win the vote. As I said earlier today, its looking like they have the votes.

Second, I’ve been watching the Rules Committee hearing this afternoon and there’s been very little discussion of the rules that would be used tomorrow. Obviously, there was behind the scenes head counting and negotiating going on.

At this point, I fully expect the bill to pass tomorrow,

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Q: Do you think that gays — the practice of homosexuality — is a detriment to our culture?

CUCCINELLI: The acts are. You certainly want everybody in your society to be integrated into your society. So, that’s a focus I’d like to take, but there’s a distinction. And it’s one that the General Assembly seems to be wrestling with every year, and we’ll leave that one to them for now.

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.

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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 deals are off. They just spoke with him and they said he’s finished with Pelosi. They rejected his enrollment corrections proposal

And that may be a sign that Pelosi is done with Stupak:

I’m hearing that House Dem vote counters are preparing to move forward without him. Reports of a deal with Stupak were overblown. Some in leadership argued for it, but pro-choice members shot it down, and Nancy Pelosi never agreed.

There’s still a question as to whether Stupak controls the amount of votes he claims to and discussions with Stupak and the members of the Stupak bloc are ongoing. What Stupak wants — a resolution that adds the same restrictive abortion language Stupak attached last time — isn’t happening.

That may explain why Stupak abruptly canceled his presser.

What does this mean for the bill ?

Well, last night the story was the Pelosi was making a deal with Stupak because she needed the votes he controls to get the bill passed. Now, it appears that she doesn’t need him at all:

House Democratic leadership has apparently told Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) to go take a hike–and they’ll move forward without him, or any other anti-abortion Dems threatening to switch their votes from ‘yes’ to ‘no.’

Just off the House floor moments ago, Pelosi told reporters there will be “no separate vote” on abortion or any other measure.

And Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a leading pro-choice progressive, said they’re moving ahead without him. “There’s not going to be any deal made with Mr. Stupak…there’s been no deal whatsoever. He’s been told that his language is not going to be added to the legislation,” she told me this morning.

(…)

“We think we have the votes regardless, and we’re going to be moving forward,” Schakowsky said. “Yes. We do think we have the votes without him.”

They’ve got the votes, folks.

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Well, the American public does not seem to agree:

In political terms is the Supreme Court too liberal, too conservative, or about right?

32% Too liberal
23% Too conservative
33% About right
11% Not sure

The poll also shows strong public support for the idea that the Court should base it’s decisions on what’s in the Constitution:

Should the Supreme Court make decisions based on what’s written in the Constitution and legal precedents or should it be guided mostly by a sense of fairness and justice?

64% What’s written in the constitution
28% It should be guided by fairness and justice
7% Not sure

So, once again, the punditocracy is out of step with the American public.

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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 strong-arm tactics in his Republican response to President Barack Obama’s Saturday radio address.

The House is expected to vote Sunday afternoon on the Senate version of the bill, and Republicans had until now expressed confidence that they could block the vote.

But in his prepared remarks, Boehner said “Republicans can’t beat the bill, but the American people can,” and he urged constituents to make their voices heard. That request comes as Democrats engage in an aggressive whipping campaign to drum up support from wavering Democrats and as Capitol phone lines are jammed with constituent calls.

“Don’t let Democrats in Washington take this debate away from you. Don’t let them make this about arm-twisting and backroom deals,” Boehner said. “And don’t let President Obama get away with asking his fellow Democrats to vote for this bill to save his presidency.”

Does Boehner know something he’s not telling us ?

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