House Minority Leader John Boehner (R) told his conference to "behave like grown-ups" if the health care bill is passed by the House later today, according to The Hill.

"According to several lawmakers who attended the 15 minute meeting, Boehner said 'we will behave like grown-ups,' and not engage in taunting the vulnerable Democrats who support the controversial measure."

In a procedural vote that was a key test for whether the health-care bill will pass, the House voted 224-206 to approve the “rule” on the health-care bill’s debate. The following 28 Democrats opposed the rule.

Adler (NJ)

Arcuri

Barrow

Boren

Boucher

Bright

Chandler

Childers

Davis (AL)

Davis (TN)

Edwards (TX)

Herseth Sandlin

Holden

Kratovil

Lipinski

Lynch

Melancon

McIntyre

Marshall

Matheson

Minnick

Mitchell

Nye

Ross

Shuler

Skelton

Space

Taylor

By Shayndi Raice

House Republicans said an agreement on abortion between antiabortion Democrats and the White House had no legal weight to prohibit the federal funding of abortion.

“This is a disappointing moment for millions of Americans who cherish the sanctity of human life,” said Rep. Mike Pence (R., Ind.).

Rep. Chris Smith (R., N.J.) said President Barack Obama’s plan to sign an executive order was a “trick,” adding that “unborn children and mothers will be killed in larger numbers as a result of this law.”

The White House and a group of antiabortion Democrats reached an agreement Sunday aimed at ensuring the current restrictions on abortion funding apply to the health-care overhaul. The deal paved the way for landmark health-care legislation to pass the House tonight, and a vote setting rules for debate showed that the abortion deal did the trick in securing sufficient votes for passage. The 224-206 vote on the procedural measure –28 Democrats joined all 178 Republicans– indicated that Democratic leaders would clear the 216-vote hurdle needed to pass the final legislation later tonight.

House Republicans said the executive order cannot trump the law. They argued that if passed, the health care bill would destroy a truce between antiabortion and abortion-rights activists that prohibited the federal funding of abortions for the last 34 years.

The group urged their Democratic colleagues to reconsider their vote. “This is a career-defining vote,” said Rep. Joe Pitts (R., Pa.). “Any member who votes for this bill can never claim they stood for the most basic human rights.”

Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.), who led a group of antiabortion Democrats in negotiating the deal on the executive order, said the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops did not endorse the agreement because they wanted the restrictions to be part of a bill, rather than an executive order. But Stupak said it would have been impossible to get that through the Senate. “I agree with the bishops that we ought to have a statute,” Stupak said. “The reality is that we can’t pass it in the Senate.”

Independent candidate for Congress in 2008 and former Green Party member John Murphy writes in Dissident Voice,

The Democrat Party is just another voice of the corporate elite that is trying to control America. It does not want us to have any choices other than the corporate candidates and it will do its best to slander and malign even men like Ralph Nader who has done more for this nation in the past 40 years than any 30 presidents in the last 200 years!

For the last ten years Democrats and corporate media pundits have been smearing Ralph Nader ? seemingly oblivious to the facts ? looking for a scapegoat for the failures of their own party and its candidates.

It is not the job of third-party or Independent candidates to make sure either of the two major parties wins. That would be like asking a new start-up to make sure Microsoft or Apple has more market share. Moreover, there are 100 million people in this country who do not vote. There are plenty of nonvoters for all candidates to attract.

At what point do we stop relying on a party to be an opposition party and start asking what else needs to be done to put some spine into Washington politics?

No, believing the corporate owned Democrat Party or its henchmen like Moulitsas and O?Donnell about Nader causing Gore?s loss is as insane as believing Iran is building nuclear weapons. Most Democrats are suffering from ?Battered Left Syndrome?. It?s time for them to leave the abusive relationship with the Democrat Party. But just like the battered wife who says ?he really loves me? or ?I can change him if I just stay with him a little longer?, the battered Democrat voter will inevitably learn the same fatal lesson learned by the battered wife.

The Democrat Party is part of the problem. It voted for or failed to stop the Iraq war resolution turning Bush into a wartime president. It voted for or failed to stop the Patriot Act. It voted for or failed to stop John Ashcroft. It voted for or failed to stop Bush?s tax cuts for the wealthy. It voted for or failed to stop the Medicare fiasco. It lost the 2002 midterm elections, contrary to historical tradition. For the last three years it has controlled Congress and continues to fund illegal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines and Palestine.

More dangerous than the Republican Party, it has destroyed the labor movement by its failure to repeal the Taft-Hartley act over the last 60 years and even now the Democrat Congress has removed the teeth from the Employee Free Choice Act. Although it may have been the Republicans under Ronald Reagan which gave us neoliberal economics, it took the Democrats under Clinton to destroy American jobs with NAFTA and repeal the Glass?Steagall Act which resulted in the collapse of the American economy. And as we have witnessed over the last year, there is merely a cosmetic difference between the Bush administration and the Obama administration although Obama?s death toll is beginning to make Bush look like a schoolyard bully. To paraphrase HL Mencken, if there had been any formidable body of cannibals in the country, Obama would have courted their vote by promising them free missionaries, fattened at the taxpayer?s expense. Of course there would have been no missionaries served up, just a few desiccated prayer books.

No, believing Markos Moulitsas when he says Nader caused Gore?s loss is as insane as believing Glenn Beck when he says that ?social justice? is code for Communism and Nazism.

By Rob Wells

The White House abortion deal with antiabortion House members drew an angry rebuke Sunday from the National Organization of Women.

NOW President Terry O’Neill accused President Barack Obama of selling out women’s health issues to win the health care vote. In a statement, she said that NOW “is incensed” that Obama agreed to issue an executive order “designed to appease a handful of anti-choice Democrats who have held up health care reform in an effort to restrict women’s access to abortion.”

Obama, she continued, “campaigned as a pro-choice president, but his actions today suggest that his commitment to reproductive health care is shaky at best.” Her final jab: “The message we have received today is that it is acceptable to negotiate health care on the backs of women, and we couldn’t disagree more.”

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum says Republicans bet that the health care reform bill would be President Obama's Waterloo -- "just as health care was Clinton's in 1994."

"Only, the hardliners overlooked a few key facts: Obama was elected with 53% of the vote, not Clinton's 42%. The liberal block within the Democratic congressional caucus is bigger and stronger than it was in 1993-94. And of course the Democrats also remember their history, and also remember the consequences of their 1994 failure."

"This time, when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none... We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat."

President Obama's job approval is back up to 50% with 43% disapproving, according to the Gallup daily tracking poll.

Last year, former President Clinton told Political Wire that "the minute health care reform passed, President Obama's approval ratings would go up 10 points."

A new Field Poll shows more Californians disapprove of the job performance of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) "than any governor in modern state history including Gray Davis, who was ousted by Schwarzenegger in a popular uprising."

"Seventy-one percent of California voters surveyed said they disapprove of Schwarzenegger's handling of the job, while 23 percent approve. The low ratings are shared across all demographics including party affiliation, region of the state, age and race or ethnicity."

Sensing victory, President Barack Obama is planning to make a statement to the nation Sunday night after the House takes its final vote on health care legislation.

The White House announced late Sunday afternoon that Mr. Obama would speak from the East Room in the evening, with the timing to be determined.

The announcement was another signal that Obama was confident that Democrats have the votes to pass the legislation at the center of his domestic agenda.

The announcement came after Mr. Obama and Democratic House leaders resolved a dispute over abortion Sunday, securing crucial support from a handful of lawmakers.

–Associated Press

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), along with his supporters, have reached a deal with the White House on an executive order on abortion that looks like it gives House Democrats the necessary votes to pass the health care bill.

Stupak announced their deal at a 4 p.m. press conference, noting he thought House leaders had already lined up the 216 votes they needed even before this deal.