Wavering moderates, including Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., control the key votes needed to bring the health overhaul bill to the Senate floor, so securing their agreement to go forward has become a priority for the Democratic leadership. Before releasing the bill, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., "spent more than an hour yesterday giving three moderate Democrat fence-sitters a special closed-door briefing ... and administration officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, met separately with senators to sell it," the Boston Globe reports (Wangsness and Milligan, 11/19).

In addition, Reid's unveiling of his $848 billion health reform bill "quickly turned up the pressure on the last few wavering moderates to support the plan, which includes a sizable chunk of deficit cutting," Politico reports. The bill would lower deficit spending by nearly $130 billion over the next decade. After that revelation, moderates Landrieu and Nelson appeared more likely to at least allow the bill to be debated…