Pelosi rejects Stupak abortion solution

Aww, poor Bartie. Guess his 15 minutes are over.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Saturday rejected an offer to hold a separate vote on abortion provisions in the sweeping health-care legislation, setting the stage for the final talks with the last Democratic holdouts.

Pelosi told reporters that she rejected the solution offered by Rep. Bart Stupak (Mich.), the leading antiabortion Democrat who proposed passing separate, strict language that would clarify that no federal funds in the proposed legislation could go toward abortion coverage.

Asked if a vote was coming, Pelosi declared no extra votes would be held to appease antiabortion Democrats or liberals still hopeful for adding their favored causes. "Not on abortion, not on public option, not on single payer, not on anything," Pelosi said. She later added, "The bill is the bill."

Senate Republicans in a Funk

Awww, poor babies!!! They're even refusing to meet with Rahm.

"Down to 42 seats with two still at risk, Senate Republicans are in a deep funk," Politico reports.

"Some are in denial. Some want a return to conservative principles. Some want to cut deals. Some want more filibusters. Others want to jump out a window -- but they're afraid they'd screw that up, too."

The reality: "Two years ago, the Republicans held a 55-45 majority. They're down 13 seats since then, with a too-close-to-call race in Minnesota and a runoff in Georgia still to come."

Things aren't looking so good for '09 & '10 either-

National Journal looks at some grim election results for House Republicans looking ahead to 2010. "Of the successful House Republican candidates, 29 fell below 55 percent of the vote, according to near-final but still unofficial election results. Of that group, 20 were incumbents, three defeated Democratic incumbents and the remaining six won contests for open seats that had been held by Republicans. The group is spread across the nation, with five from California, where Republicans this year retained all 19 of their House seats."

McCain Campaign Won't Let Joe Klein On The Plane

Pouty little twits they are.

Time columnist Joe Klein, who’s been a forceful critic of the McCain campaign (and already said he’s unwilling to accept a post-election apology), has found himself without a seat on the McCain or Palin planes the past four months.

In June, Klein was kept from boarding the McCain plane over what they said had been a security issue. More recently, when trying to fly on the Palin plane last week, Klein told Politico over e-mail that the campaign's response was he “couldn’t be accommodated at this time.”

“I’ve done nine presidential campaigns and this is the first time this has ever happened to me,” Klein said. “I was even allowed—I won’t say welcomed—on the Clinton plane in the summer of 1996 after I was revealed as the author of Primary Colors.”

(snip)

UPDATE: Campaign spokesperson Michael Goldfarb responded that "we don't allow Daily Kos diarists on board either."

Funny, some pretty important politicians have written diaries over at DKos