As expected, Democrats squeezed out the 60 votes needed to shut off debate on the procedural motion that would bring the health care issue to the floor of the Senate.

The last two Democrats fell in line publicly on Satuday afternoon, as Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) voted with their party after a lot of public criticism in their states.

Landrieu made clear that she wants to see changes, but argued a no vote right now made no sense.

"There are enough significant reforms and safeguards in this bill to move forward, but much more work needs to be done."

Lincoln basically argued the same, but made very clear that Democrats should not count on her vote, especially for a bill that would create a government health insurance company, the public option.

"We should be stopping the growth of government, not expanding it more," Lincoln said in a Senate floor speech.

"I've alerted the Leader and I'm promising my colleagues that I'm prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration as long as the government run public option is included," said Lincoln.

I will translate that for you.

It means Lincoln joins Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) as a Senator who - right now at least - is ready to filibuster a health care bill that has a public option.

So, while Democrats won this round, they will have to make some difficult decisions later on when it comes to the public option.

Get rid of it - and they may be able to get this bill through the Senate.

Stick with it - and a there may not be enough votes to break a filibuster.

But that talk didn't impress Republicans very much.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell accused Lincoln and Landrieu of twisting themselves into a "pretzel" on health care reform.

"The easiest time to change this bill was right now," McConnell told a news conference, as he took aim at Landrieu, Lincoln and others.

"Make no mistake about it, this was a vote for the bill."

This debate - with amendments - will start again after Thanksgiving.

As for Landrieu, she had taken a lot of flak last week for supposedly getting a $100 million sweetener in the bill for the state of Louisiana, in terms of extra Medicaid money.

After announcing her 'aye' vote, Landrieu took a minute to express her frustration at attacks over that aid for the Bayou State.

"I am not going to be defensive about asking for help in this situation," Landrieu said defiantly, as you could almost imagine her laughing in the face of someone who challenged her work.

"It's not a $100 million fix; it's a $300 million fix," she said flatly.

You got her give her credit for one thing - most lawmakers would have ignored the story or said something totally petty. She not only owned up to the provision, heck, she seemed peeved that people had said it was worth only $100 million.

Only in the U.S. Congress!