Well, and that's a very accurate way to look at it too, the GOP starts off by asking the dems everytime negotiations start with 'will you open tort reform up for discussion' and invariably get back either 'no' or 'we might be amenable to putting it on a future bill' which is also 'no'. The president and Pelosi and Reid keep mentioning bipartisan efforts but at best they say 'whcih parts of our plan might you be okay with?' never in any serious sense 'what parts do you want out totally, is there anything you'd like to add?' if they did, they might get some support. More importantly, while few in the GOP want to vote 'yes' on any bill of this type, they might find a few who would say 'I won't vote for it, but I will vote for cloture' which amounts to the same thing in this case. Without tort reform in one of these bills, I really doubt they have a chance of getting a signle yes vote, and maybe not even a cloture vote.