Brown says Dems won't let dissenters stall health reform

Democratic leaders in the Senate won't let a few dissenters in their own ranks stall healthcare reform, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) predicted.

Brown said that a head count of Senate Democrats shows more than a majority of votes in favor of the public option, and rejected the idea that some centrist Democrats who have withheld judgment on or rejected the public option would hold up passage.

"I don't think we're going to have two or three members of the Senate on the Democratic side tell the other 55 of us -- not to mention, the country -- we're not going to have one small tail wagging the dog here," Brown said during an appearance on MSNBC Tuesday evening.

Brown argued that Democrats would be able to get 60 votes to start a debate on the bill on the Senate floor, at which point leaders would give opponents of the public option an opportunity to vote the public plan out of the bill -- something Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he supports.

"They will fail because we're going to get, Chairman Harkin thinks 55 votes for the public option," Brown said.

But the Ohio Democrat said that political pressure was too great on those like Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), or Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) to support a filibuster.

"I don't think on a procedural vote, they're going to vote to kill the top priority of the president of the United States," Brown said. "I don't think they're going to vote to kill the most important domestic initiative in their political careers on a procedural vote."