Grassley suggests Snowe will vote against Baucus healthcare reform bill

The health reform bill before the Senate Finance Committee will probably pass on a party-line vote, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Tuesday.

Grassley, the ranking member of the Finance Committee, said that Chairman Max Baucus's (D-Mont.) healthcare bill would pass 13-10, suggesting that the closely watched Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) would vote against the proposal.

"It'll pass probably on a party-line vote of 13-10," Grassley said in a news conference with Iowa reporters.

Snowe has been courted aggressively by Democrats who hope to portray the outcome as having some bipartisan support. A member of the original "Gang of Six," Snowe had been locked in negotiations to come up with a bipartisan compromise, which stalled in early September.

But Republicans have also applied pressure on Snowe in recent days, threatening to strip her of some key committee positions if she sides with Democrats on health reform.

It is not clear how Grassley's comments gel with a suggestion he made this morning during an interview on Bloomberg News, in which he professed to have no knowledge of how Snowe would vote.

"I'll bet you right here at this very moment, she may not know how she's going to vote," he said during that interview.

An e-mail to a Grassley spokeswoman seeking clarification was not immediately returned Tuesday afternoon.

Grassley, who was also a member of the Gang of Six, said that he will vote against the proposal.