From Friday’s Fox News All-Stars.
On Senate passage of the health-care reform bill:
You asked what Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas will ask for. Well, after watching Louisiana get $100 million in what have some have called “The Louisiana Purchase,” she ought to ask for $500 million at least.
Obama said he would end business as usual in Washington. If you look at section 2006, the Louisiana money, it looks as if it is a provision for all states which have had a proclamation of a disaster area in the last seven years — and then the fine print inside eliminates all the others except Louisiana. It’s a new kind of business as usual. …
There is almost no way imaginable that the vote [to allow debate to proceed on the health-care bill] will fail tomorrow. If it is, it is the ultimate humiliation [for Obama]. It’s the rejection of the debate even before it starts.
The Democrats, even Lincoln who will have to be [up] for reelection, will have a second shot at killing the bill later, after the amendments. …
Now, you’ve got [Sen. Ben] Nelson, who is against the abortion provisions. He will allow debate, but if it’s [the abortion language] not changed in the course of these amendments, he will oppose the bill at the end, which is why I think the bill at the end is going to strip out all the abortion stuff.
And then on the … public option, they’re going to lose [Sen. Joe] Lieberman in the end — not tomorrow night — but in the end if it stays in. But they could possibly gain Olympia Snowe of Maine if a trigger [for the public option] is in.
So it can in the end pass, but it has to be amended in precisely the right way.
On Sarah Palin’s popularity:
She’s a rock star. She’s this year’s Barack Obama — incredible charisma and a strong constituency.
She will not be the [Republican presidential] nominee. She shouldn’t be. But she will be decisive in deciding who is.
On the end of the Oprah Winfrey Show:
I’m not sure I can take it. My afternoons will be empty.