BREAKING --Reid: No health care vote until after August

By GottaLaff

UPDATE:

Meanwhile, Roll Call reports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) "made clear" that she "is willing to keep the House in session into August" to have the full House vote on its proposal.

Per a Tweet from MSNBC just now:

msnbc_politics: BREAKING NEWS: Senate Majority Leader Reid says no #healthcare vote until after August

More from AP:

The top Democrat in the Senate says lawmakers won't vote until after August on health care, a blow to President Barack Obama's ambitious timetable.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Thursday the Finance Committee will act on its portion of the bill before Congress' monthlong break. Then Reid will merge that bill with separate legislation already passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The Nevada Democrat says the decision to delay a vote was made Wednesday night in the hopes of getting a final bipartisan bill. [...]

Democratic divisions in Congress stalled President Barack Obama's health care overhaul Thursday, with one frustrated senator urging his colleagues to move faster and a member of the House leadership suggesting lawmakers cancel their August vacation to finish a bill.

"It's time for them to fish or cut bait," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said of members of the Senate Finance Committee, which has struggled to come up with a bipartisan bill to fulfill Obama's goal of expanding coverage to millions who lack it and containing rising costs.

Harkin said the panel has waited too long and should push out a bill with as much support as it can get.

"I am very upset about this, that the Finance Committee keeps dragging their feet and dragging their feet and dragging their feet," he said on a conference call with Iowa reporters.

At the same time nine freshman Senate Democrats, largely from swing states, sent a letter to Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., urging him to keep working toward a bipartisan solution. [...]

On Thursday, leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus said they requested a meeting with Obama after watching the president negotiate with the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats.

"We felt it was important that more than one voice be heard," said Donna Christensen, the congressional delegate for the U.S. Virgin Islands who is leading the black caucus' health care efforts. "When we hear phrases like squeezing more savings out of the system ... we're concerned that what may be taken out will be provisions that are critical to our communities."

The mostly liberal black caucus wants to make sure that any reform retains core provisions such as a public health insurance option that guarantees coverage for everyone.

Sotomayor Gets Her First ‘Nay’ Vote: Pat Roberts

By GottaLaff

The Party of No gets revved up via a Big Hey-I'm-A-Marine Blowhard:

[O]n Thursday morning, Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, apparently became the first senator to say aloud that he would vote against her confirmation.

On a KCMO-AM radio program back home in Kansas City Thursday morning, the host Chris Stigall asked Senator Roberts whether he would feel forced to vote for Ms. Sotomayor to avoid being labeled a “bigot.”

“I’m a Marine and nothing much scares me,” said Senator Roberts, a Republican. “That’s not going to be a consideration in my vote.”

Wow, I never realized what a macho guy Roberts was! A Marine qualifies him to vote down a qualified Latina for the Supremes! Gosharootie, that does take balls!

Earlier this week, he seemed to indicate that he would wait until he had time to further review her record. But on the radio program this morning, Senator Roberts said that he wasn’t inclined to reverse his opposition from 1998, when he and 28 other Republicans voted against her confirmation to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He continued:

“I voted no in 1998. I did not feel that she was appropriate on the Appeals Court. Since that time she has made statements on the role of the Appeals Court that I think is improper and incorrect.

“I think that we should be judging people not on race and gender or background or ethnicity or a very telling story. There are a lot of people that have that. My goodness, Clarence Thomas had that, and look what he got.

[...]

“With all due respect to the nominee and nothing personal, I do not plan to vote for her.”

Administration officials and fellow lawyers assert that her comments about how appeals courts can make policy have been misinterpreted.

I used to be a Girl Scout, so it doesn't scare me to say that Roberts is a dufus.