All over the country today, they’re breaking down U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s words from the Political Animals Club of Little Rock, which is not something one would normally do if interested in clarity and grammar. 

To me it’s rather clear.

She cannot support that bill, card check. That’s a no vote on the bill itself .

She cannot support the bill’s moving forward. That’s a no on cloture by which the bill could be considered and passed by fewer than 60 votes.

She cannot support this bill or its moving forward in it current form. That’s saying that, if the parties want to change it, she’ll look at it.

But this measure is a destructive distraction right now from the vital debates on the economy and health care, so we shouldn’t be talking about it. That means she’s not going to involve herself in any brokering or negotiating or even idle pondering on this measure, and that, frankly, she doesn’t want to see anything on it for a good while unless management and labor bring it to her holding hands.

I think she’s taken this not only off her own plate, but, to his great advantage, Obama’s. Frankly, he needs to be focused on other things. Frankly, he’ll look like a left-lurcher and a politician as usual to string himself out right now with a political payoff to labor. Now he can blame those sorry excuses for Democrats from Arkansas, where he got creamed by 20 points and where, unless I’m misreading the signals, he still isn’t very popular.

What I’m not picking up is what the incentive is for management to negotiate with labor. The issue is off the table for two years and the Democrats might lose a seat or three in 2010. The only incentive could be that it’s better to try to dispose of this issue rather than keep it hanging.