It may come down to the Louisiana Purchase after all

From Eric Dondero:

There's been a rather interesting development on the Health Care nationalization front. Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak is now sounding less optimistic about the Democrats coming to an agreement over abortion language.

Just breaking from The Weekly Standard...

Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak said yesterday at a townhall in his home state, "I'm more optimistic than I was a week ago" that a deal could be reached to pass a health care bill that bans public funding of abortion. Some speculated that this meant Stupak was ready to cave. "Obviously they don’t know me," Stupak said in an interview this afternoon with THE WEEKLY STANDARD. "If I didn’t" cave in November, "why would I do it now after all the crap I’ve been through?"

"Everyone’s going around saying there’s a compromise—there’s no such thing," Stupak said.

But perhaps even more telling is this other comment from the interview, where Stupak cites a budgetary matter as one of his top concerns.

Continuing:

Stupak highlighted other problems with the bill: The president's proposal has not been translated into legislative language and it still leaves some special deals in place. "If you look at the President’s proposal," Stupak said, "it says that the Cornhusker agreement is out, but the Louisiana Purchase is in."

By my estimate, having researched a multitude of sources in the last couple days, the Democrats seem to be at the very least 15 votes shy of the needed 216, but quite possibly as high as 20 to 22 votes shy. Taken the more conservative estimate of 15, 12 of those are "Stupakians"; Dems who are not voting specifically for the abortion language.

Stupak inserting the Louisiana Purchase into the mix, throws this all up in the air. Who knows how many of the 12 abortion foes, also share his anti-pork views, as well. If just 2 or 3 in the House opt out over Sen. Mary Landrieu's special treatment, it's a gonner.

(Via Memeo)