Reporting from Conway, Ark. — As one of the few senators undecided on healthcare reform, Arkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln faces a huge headache. Liberals attack her as an obstructionist, even though she cast a key vote keeping the effort alive. Republicans are lining up to run against her -- seven, so far, and counting.
The voters here at home seem conflicted, if not downright confused.
Take Jim Havens. He greeted Lincoln with a warm embrace when she showed up at the University of Central Arkansas for a service honoring veterans; his late brother was a family friend. Moments later, as Lincoln sat on stage, the 73-year-old state employee related his frustrations with the healthcare system: the struggle to cover his wife before Medicare kicked in, the exclusions that made her expensive policy barely worth the cost.
"What we got is broken," Havens said. But, he quickly added, "what I don't think we need to do is rush to fix it and make things even worse."
It once seemed that passing a healthcare bill would be, if not easy, at least not as hard as it has been for Democrats, who continued bickering Sunday even after pushing legislation to the Senate floor. They hold the White House, have a sizable majority in the House and a supermajority in the Senate: 58 Democrats and two independents who typically vote with the party.
But those numbers fail to account for the message that some lawmakers are receiving from voters like Havens.
"There's lots of diversity as Democrats," Lincoln said during a recent home visit, as the telephones in her Little Rock office rang nonstop. "People have to realize that in that diversity there's differences and those differences have to be respected. You can't just draw a line in the sand and say, 'As Democrats, this is what we have to be for.' "
With Senate Republicans apparently in solid opposition, Democrats need every one of their members and both independents to prevent a GOP filibuster and pass healthcare legislation. The House approved its version by a narrow 220 to 215.
At this time, however, Senate Democrats are shy of the 60 votes they need. Those balking include independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Democrats Lincoln, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.
Each voted Saturday to advance the bill for debate starting next week. Lincoln was the last to commit. But none is assured of supporting the legislation on final passage.
