Paul has taken a crack at the relentless politicking behind the Senate Finance Committee's passage of the Baucus health-care reform bill yesterday. While he's right that the senatorial egos will line up to be massaged, it's not necessarily because they want attention paid to them, especially the folks like Ben Nelson. In fact, they seem to want the opposite: As Brian Beutler observes, Snowe's vote, while welcome, could prove problematic in the future if the Nelsons of the Senate decide that their votes are contingent on Snowe's support of the final bill -- essentially, outsourcing their representative duties to the senator from Maine. By the time the bill comes to the floor, Snowe could end up representing four or five states. Just like Chuck Grassley, who subsumed his principles to the will of the Republican Party, these senators will let someone else decide where they stand. Which might lead one to think they have no principles at all.On the more substantive discussion of the bill, Jon Cohn has a nice breakdown of 10 provisions of the bill that will need to be fought for as it moves through the floor of the respective congressional chambers, headed for conference. I'm particularly interested in how the revenue battles will play out between Labor, the House and the Senate, expect more on that topic later today.-- Tim Fernholz
