Land Of Lincoln

Back home for the holidays...and apparently also returning home after her "Come to Jeebus" meeting with Sen. Harry Reid is Sen. Blanche Lincoln, the last holdout for tonight's Senate vote on health care.

U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln said Saturday that she supports bringing the health care bill to the floor for debate, giving Democrats the 60 votes needed to prevent a GOP filibuster.

Speaking on the Senate floor hours before the 8 p.m. procedural vote, the Arkansas Democrat said she would give Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama the crucial vote required to move the Democrats' contentious health care measure forward for debate.

"Although I don't agree with everything in this bill, I believe it is important to begin this debate," Lincoln said. She added that she still opposes the public option.

"This issue is very complex. There is no easy fix," she added.

Earlier Saturday, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, became the 59th lawmaker to side with Reid, who needed the support of all 58 Senate Democrats and independent Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to avoid a GOP filibuster.

All 40 Republicans are expected to oppose having a debate.

And of course it only gets tougher from here on out.  Much tougher.  The Republicans will do everything they can to delay this bill into 2010 to try to scare the Dems and America.  Three things are working against them:  Americans are too tired of the GOP to listen to their fearmongering anymore, the GOP still doesn't have any sort of actual alternative to fix the problem, and history is on the side of the Dems.  Not a single Republican wants anything to do with fixing health care, with the lone exception of Rep. Joseph Cao of Louisiana.

We'll see how it works out.