Glory be!

We now have the bill - HR 1591 - and the rule - H Res 261.

And, it seems, the debate starts today.

According to a CQpiece yesterday,

"It's within two or three votes right now," said John P. Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

There's more...

A Hillpiece has their latest cut.

My impression - my enthusiasm for spreadsheeting the counts has rather waned - is that new guys have popped into their lists - especially the list of undecided/no comment folks.

Notably (for one reason or another) Conyers, Cuellar and Jefferson are new to the undecided list.

Lewis is a somewhat embarrassing naysayer - as senior deputy chief whip.

There's more...

(Sorry to mention the p-word there: of course, principle has nothing to do with it...)

As I've said before - but, to be fair, only in the past week - Dems of all stripes really need to vote for this wretched bill. (The text of which is still not available online to the Great Unwashed. Could no one be found who was willing to provide a copy to be put online? Information is power, and you and I, buddy, have zip of either.)

As time has gone on, and pants have turned daily a darker shade of brown, the amount of pork (aka bribes) in the leadership text has multiplied like bacteria.

The total cost of the bill is now $124bn, according to the Postthis morning.

There's more...

Our friends at the Hill - which is put to bed at a civilized hour, to judge by the fact we have its tomorrow stories right now - tell us

At least eight Democrats are planning to vote "no" on the Iraq supplemental, scheduled for a Thursday vote. Two more are "leaning no." Meanwhile, there are over three dozen Democrats who are undecided, according to a survey conducted by The Hill.

On the other side of the aisle,

While 17 House Republicans voted against President Bush's troop surge, fewer than 10 are expected to vote for the pending appropriations measure. Republicans who are possible defectors include Reps. Wayne Gilchrest (Md.) and Walter Jones (N.C.).

There's more...

On Saturday, I queried whether the Progs should vote against the much-diluted Iraq bill.

Then, on Sunday, we had the Post story on leadership efforts to thumbscrew the Progs into supporting the bill.

By Monday, I was assuming that the Progs were pretty much beaten into submission, and ruminating on one or two long-shots.

That is, long-shots to defeat the bill.

There's more...