The NYT has an article today which may lull Democrats into a sense of false security:

In the homestretch of the health care debate, one obvious question being asked across the capital is whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi will find 216 votes to pass the bill. For a group of particularly jittery Democrats, the better question may be this: Who will be allowed to slip away?
[...]
… as the week inches along, with momentum steadily building to a Sunday vote, the party leaders are also beginning to decide which politically endangered lawmakers will be given absolution to vote no.
[...]
There are, of course, very few votes to spare. Yet there are some. And even most Republican leaders concede that the mystery is not so much whether Democrats will reach the magic number of 216, but rather whose names will be included as yes votes in the final count.

Not everyone is buying it, of course:

The good news for proponents is that there are now three Dems who voted against reform in November who are now going to support the bill. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who announced his switch on Wednesday, was first, and two more — Tennessee Blue Dog Bart Gordon and Colorado’s Betsy Markey — made the same switch yesterday afternoon. Illinois’ Luis Gutierrez and Ohio’s Charlie Wilson, who were threatening to switch from “yes” to “no,” both said they’d vote to pass reform, too.

But the news was not all good. New York’s Michael Arcuri, in a rather shocking display of cowardice, declared on his website that he would oppose the bill he supported in November. Illinois’ Daniel Lipinski signaled his intention to follow Bart Stupak’s lead. Ohio’s Zack Space is leaning “no,” despite supporting reform in the past, and in a head-scratcher, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, a member of Speaker Pelosi’s whip team, declared that the reform bill isn’t liberal enough for him, and declared his opposition.

And, of course, Bart Stupak is still Bart Stupak.

I’m still trying to track down links and quotes, but I seem to distinctly remember that when the House passed the healthcare bill 220-215 in November, we were told the final vote was so close only because, once passage was assured, some vulnerable Democrats had been allowed to vote against the bill.

And yet, when the vote counts turned agonizingly close again, nobody was saying, “Hey, no worries, there’s this built-in safety margin. As a last resort, the people who received absolution for voting no last time will just be asked to step up to the plate and take one for the team.”