Now that the U.S. Senate parlimentarian has put the ixnay on the bizarre, unconstitutional House plan to pass a rule “deeming” the Senate version of the Obamacare bill to have been passed without actually voting on it, Nancy Pelosi is left without any mechanism to effect a deal with Bart Stupak on abortion.

This leaves her with no other choice but to try to twist enough arms for the House to pass the Senate version of the bill.  That will be hard.  If Stupak’s gang of 12 holds firm, Pelosi will have to find 12 “no” votes that she can change to “yes”.  I don’t think there are that many lemmings in her caucus.  If Stupak can only hold six votes instead of twelve, though, then Pelosi has a theoretical shot, anyway.  I’m now mostly convinced that the bill will fail.

UPDATE 3-12, 12:15 pm:  Politico explains why the Senate parlimentarian’s statements don’t rule out using the “Slaughter option.”  If so, then why is Pelosi giving up on Stupak?    My head spins with the complications here, and I honestly don’t think that the Democrats really know what they are doing yet.  I think they are floundering and looking for a strategy.  They don’t have a bill yet either, but President Obama wants the House to pass it before the 21st.  Nuts.