I was checking out Instapundit, and was pointed to this article that claims that the current stimulus package probably does not have enough support to pass in the Senate.

Media reports suggest Senate Republicans have become a key focus of stimulus talks, an acknowledgement that they appear to hold the balance of power in that chamber despite having only 41 seats to the Democrats’ 58. The Washington Post reports on the front page that Senate Democratic leaders “conceded yesterday that they do not have the votes to pass the stimulus bill as currently written and said that to gain bipartisan support, they will seek to cut provisions that would not provide an immediate boost to the economy.” Moderate Republicans are “trying to trim the bill by as much as $200 billion.”

What this is coming down to is that President Obama and his colleagues in Congress seemed to believe that when they said “bipartisan,” what they could mean was, “We’ll tell the Republicans what we want, and if they offer dissention, we’ll just push it through anyway.”

The trouble for Obama is that, inasmuch as he really wants to “change Washington” (which is debatable), the powerbrokers in both Houses of Congress are just as corrupt as ever. The NY Daily News details just how much of this stimulus bill has been soaked in pork fat.

There are about $340 billion in tax cuts and more than $540 billion in spending in the massive package. Democrats need just two GOP votes to pass the bill, and predicted they’d get them because of the consequences of not passing it.

According to accounts, much of this $540 Billion will do little to stimulate the economy, but in fact is “Thank You Very Much” money heading straight to those organizations that supported the Democrats in November.

Anyway, back to bipartisanship. Obama has shown the appearance of being willing to reach out to Republicans, but in my mind this is just a photo-op. And the change in tone over the last week has been striking. As reports of unwillingness to include Republicans in the bill-drafting process came to surface, and as the American people learned that this legislation was exceedingly wasteful while doing little to stimulate our economy, support numbers have dwindled in the polls. As this has happened, we see that Senate Republicans are making a strong push towards stripping a lot of the pork.

Obama’s Presidency is realistically coming down to these first two weeks in February. With the ethical nightmare his selection of three tax-cheating pols for Cabinet posts, there is damage on the hull of the Obama brig. He still has widespread support, but his two strongest running points were removing corruption and changing the partisan politics of Washington. In this author’s opinion, he’s finding out just how difficult it is to deliver on such promise.

A power play needs to be made. Obama’s mistake was thinking that the power play was to undress the Republicans and shove through his Socialist agenda. Instead, the shakedown of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid is the proper tactic. Republicans are willing to cross the aisle, but someone needs to listen. I believe that result will dictate whether Barack Obama will be given a 2nd term in office.