After GMA this morning, George Stephanopoulos tried to make something of Bart Stupak’s 1,000th press appearance in the last 30 days by suggesting Stupak might be “ready to deal.” This seemed like pure smoke.

But now Jeffrey Young is reporting that six to ten Stu-packers are in negotiations with Senate and House Democrats over the possibility of a separate vote on abortion language.

Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.V.), one of Rep. Bart Stupak’s (D-Mich.) gang of staunch opponents of the Senate abortion language, said they are in discussions with Senators and House leaders to secure such a commitment.
“There could be some kind of commitment from the other body to act on this later… to ensure that the Senate language does not remain law,” he said.
Rahall said that securing such an agreement could open up six-to-10 members, including himself, to voting for the Senate bill and reconciliation language.
He told the Charleston Daily Mail he will vote no unless abortion language is changed.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) on Thursday hinted that discussions along the lines Rahall mentioned were in the works.
. . .Rahall said the remaining opponents were at this point looking for “some type of language we can rely on in the Senate” and a “promise [from the Senate] to act in the future.”
The Chairman would not say whether discussions between Stupak and Senate Democrats have risen to the leadership level, but he did say that he and Stupak are talking to House leaders, including Pelosi.
Asked how those discussions were going, Rahall said; “That’s undeterminable at this point.”

But I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were a pro-life Democrat. Just listen to the Speaker of the House today:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was asked about Bart Stupak’s suggestion that there could be another bill to address abortion funding and she said, “I haven’t heard any of that.”
“If you don’t want federal funding for abortion… and you want to have a health care bill,” she said. “This is it.”
She said members may be talking about various things and dismissively mentioned Stupak’s name, adding, “But right now we are just getting votes to pass a bill.”
“This bill is about health care and not about abortion,” Pelosi said. “There will be no further changes in the bill.”

Still, something to keep an eye on.