It passes in the Senate

The Senate has passed healthcare reform this morning at 7:16am ET on a vote of 60-39.

Passage of HR 3590 required a simple majority. Guess who provided the 50th vote in the alphabetical roll call? Former Republican Arlen Specter. :-)

The Los Angeles Times has some of the backstory including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's leadership:

"So many people find Harry Reid incomprehensible as a leader in large part because he is so unprepossessing as a public speaker," said Ross K. Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist. "But his virtue and his value to his caucus is his mastery of the mechanics of the Senate."

"There are Senate leaders like that who come along every few decades," he said.

Over the last two months, Reid, a slight, soft-spoken man who makes listeners strain to hear him, gambled. He pulled senators back to the table when deals fell apart. And with the clock ticking down, he prodded his colleagues to make agonizing concessions for a larger goal.

The $871-billion bill, paid for with a mix of tax hikes and Medicare cuts, would expand coverage to an estimated 31 million more people over the next decade.

We're almost there. And if, like me, you're worried about 92 yo Senator Robert Byrd's health, read this. (He was present and voted this morning.)