McConnell: Senate Dems stand in the way of their own healthcare bill

Standing in the way of Senate Democrats' healthcare bill are the party's own moderate members, many of whom object to a public option in any form, the chamber's top Republican said Wednesday.

And even if the majority party does manage to convince its top centrists to support their healthcare bill's introduction, it is unlikely those on-the-fence Democrats would rally together to stop a filibuster, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also predicted.

"The problem they're having is selling it to their own members," McConnell told CNN's Wolf Blitzer this afternoon.

Democrats "have a super majority in the Senate; they can do any they want to," he added. "Their problem is not with my side -- their problem is with their own side."

It has been a difficult week for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the healthcare bill he first previewed on Monday. Not long after he revealed the chamber's bill would ultimately include a public option -- albeit one that would permit states to "opt out" -- a number of lawmakers signaled they had serious qualms with the idea.

Foremost among them was Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who threatened on Tuesday to filibuster a cloture vote unless Democrats stripped from their bill any mention of a government plan. That spelled immediate trouble for Reid, who needs Lieberman's support -- or, at least, one GOP defector in his place -- if he is to reach the 60 votes required to put an end to floor debate.

Additionally, a handful of the party's own lawmakers -- including centrist Democratic Sens. Evan Bayh (Ind.), Mary Landrieu (La.) and Ben Nelson (Fla.) -- have yet to reveal whether they might follow suit, further jeopardizing Reid's already tenuous whip count.

But as Democrats clamor to woo skeptical moderate lawmakers into at least defeating a filibuster, McConnell on Wednesday was raising the stakes. He repeated his line that a vote to end cloture would be tantamount to a vote in favor of the Democrats' bill -- a move, he added, that would put Democrats into a precarious position of defending why they voted for something before they voted against it. 

"It created a big problem for John Kerry back in the 2004 election. If you recall, the most famous utterance of that campaign was, 'I voted for it before I voted against it,'" McConnell said during an earlier interview on Fox News.

"What Harry's trying to do is convince his members to vote to get on the bill, even though a number of them have indicated they may vote against it later," he added. "Well, I don't think the public is going to buy an argument that you voted for it before you voted against it."