Health Wars

Thune: No GOP Aisle-Crossers

Says compromise won't tempt Snowe, Collins.

Despite Harry Reid's moderate-wooing compromise on the public option, John Thune predicts that the Senate Majority Leader won't be able to peel off any Republican votes to beat the filibuster. "This is like Groundhog Day," the South Dakota senator said. "It is déjà vu all over again where we wake up every day and there is a new idea to try and figure out how to get 60 votes." Thune said he thought that the expansion of Medicare coverage might be an attempt to win holdout Sen. Joe Lieberman's support, but that he was skeptical of the compromise's ability to help "with moderates on their side who have expressed concern about government-run health care." Reid seems to believe that the most recent compromise has sealed the 60 votes he needs to avoid being filibustered, and is quickly moving the legislation ahead to a vote.