Counting Allies And Foes

D-Day puts the current count at this hour at 202 yes, 205 no, with 14 undecided, and 10 remaining members of the Stupak bloc.  If all the Stupak people vote no, that means Pelosi could pass the bill without any of them...if she can wrangle all 14 undecided.

That's a tall order.

Still, the Slaughter Rule appears to also be dead.

Rep. Mel Watt just told our Brian Beutler that the whole "self-executing" rule (aka what the GOP was calling the "Slaughter Rule") thing is off. They'll vote on the rule, then the reconciliation bill and then the original Senate bill.

Emerging from a whip meeting amidst a swarm of Tea Partiers yelling "Kill the Bill", Watt told TPMDC: "There's gonna be three votes as I understand it: the rule, the reconciliation, and the Senate bill."

And there's talk of a possible Presidential executive order reaffirming the existing abortion language rather than the Stupak language.  That could get a number of additional people on board who are not now.

But that still means Pelosi has to get 14 of 24 at this point.  This may end up going deep into the night tonight and long into tomorrow before the final vote.

[UPDATE 4:45 PM]  President Obama made his final pitch to House Dems this afternoon in a powerful and inspiring speech:

The president says that after a year of debate, Congress is on the threshold of passing health care reform legislation.

"This piece of historic legislation is built on the private insurance system that we have now and runs straight down the center of American political thought," he told lawmakers Saturday.

"We are making sure that the system of private insurance works for ordinary families," he said, calling the legislation a "patient's bill of rights on steroids" and "the toughest insurance reform in history."

"If you agree that the system is not working for ordinary families, if you've heard the same stories that I've heard everywhere, all across the country, then help us fix the system," Obama said in urging lawmakers to pass the bill.

"Don't do it for me. Don't do it for Nancy Pelosi or for Harry Reid," he said. "Do it for all those people who are struggling."

Amen to that.