Hotline After Dark -- If Only I'd Ben The 60th Vote

By Rachelle Douillard-Proulx & Abby Livingston

"World News" led with health care reform. "Evening News" and "Nightly News" led with the winter storm.

Pols discussed 12/21 the deal Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) cut to become the Dems' final vote to move forward with health care reform.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), on whether CA should demand full Medicaid like NE: "When we see a senator like Senator Nelson hold up a bill and able to cut that kind of deal, it certainly makes us think that maybe we should be fighting harder, also, for our states. Of course, we would like not to have the states have to pay their share of Medicaid. Of course, we are in deficit here. Many states are. Now, he's got a special deal and some of us are not going to like that very much" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 12/21).

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), on Nelson: "My state's going to have to pay more money to meet that obligation, except for Nebraska, because he was the 60th vote. That's not change anybody can believe in" ("O'Reilly Factor," FNC, 12/21).

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), on Nelson: "It appears the last senator gets the most baggage on the train. There's, unfortunately, a lot of baggage on this train. This bill is passed with a lot of special interest deals being done, which means that, probably, the policy wasn't all that good or the policy would have carried it on its own" ("On the Record," FNC, 12/21).

After the jump, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) discusses his controversial comments and pols and pundits weigh in on the Senate health care bill.

FRIENDS FOREVER

Coburn went "On the Record" 12/21 p.m. to discuss his comments about wishing for Dem senators to not make the floor vote.

Coburn, on his comments: "I wouldn't back away from that. I'd love for everybody's alarm clock that's for this thing not to work. The fact is, is this is an epic change in our country. It's a reduction in freedom in our country. It doesn't reform health care, it just expands the mess that we have today. And it tells you a couple things. They didn't want to talk about the bill, they wanted to talk about what somebody said."

Coburn, on Senate Maj. Whip Dick Durbin's criticism of his comments: "I think in Senator Durbin's comments, what he said was, 'my friend.' Well, if you think your friend said something that's inappropriate, you don't go blast him on the floor, you go say, 'What did you mean by that?' I mean, that's a friend."

More Coburn: "He's still my friend. I would never do that to him. I'd go ask him what he meant before I'd go and blast him on the floor if I thought -- and everybody knew that I wasn't -- as a physician, I wouldn't wish ill health on anybody. And they know that. But it's the politics of silliness that we get into in Washington when we're stretching things out and doing things of major consequence in this country, when it's all partisan" (FNC, 12/21).

CAN'T GET NO SATISFACTION

Senators and pols discussed the deal-making behind the Senate health care bill on TV 12/21.

Gregg, on Senate dysfunction: "We were supposed to be the saucer into which the hot coffee was poured. And, unfortunately, we're becoming a hot coffee urn also" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 12/21).

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), on whether this weekend's compromise was "the grand compromise of the Senate" or "backroom dealing at its worst": "It was a good compromise. I don't like some of the deals that were made. I don't like the deal that was made on abortion. I think that that compromises a woman's right to choose. I don't like that the public option is no longer in or the Medicare buy-in. And I don't like some of the other things. But, overall, this bill makes a big difference" ("NewsHour," PBS, 12/21).

Graham, on the Dems deal-making: "It turned into a pretty sleazy process at the end, didn't it? Obama campaigned on the idea of transparency and a new way of doing business. He said that we will negotiate on C-Span the health care reform this country needs. Everybody will have a seat at the table, including the bad insurance companies. And you'll be able to watch negotiations on C-Span" ("O'Reilly Factor," FNC, 12/21).

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): "This bill is not anywhere near as strong a bill as I would like to see. I want to see a Medicare for all, single-payer. I want to see a strong public option. I don't want to see taxes on working people's health benefits. I want see re-importation of prescription drugs so that we can lower the cost of prescription drugs."

More Sanders: "What brought me over is that among other things this provision significantly improves the bill. It makes a bill worth supporting rather than killing the whole bill and allowing 45,000 people a year to continue to die" ("Campbell Brown," CNN, 12/21).

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI): "This is a process. I wish we had everything in this bill that I want in this bill. But I'll tell you what; it's better than the status quo" ("Ed Show," MSNBC, 12/21).

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN): "This gives sausage-making a bad name" ("Your World," FNC, 12/21).

CNBC's Harwood: "So much of the commentary that I've heard has been really idiotic. Liberals who want universal health care ought to be thanking Harry Reid for getting this done rather than talking about what's inadequate in the bill. I'm not saying the bill is a good bill."

More Harwood: "But if you're a liberal and you want universal coverage in this country, and think that you can do better, that Harry Reid can do better than he's done that the White House can do better, they ought to lay off the hallucinogenic drugs because we've had a vivid demonstration of the limits of political possibilities on this issue" ("Morning Meeting," MSNBC, 12/21).