Republicans can box up yesterday's collapse of the healthcare bill however, they wish. Reality is that after Trump's inauguration, when back-room healthcare, overturn Obamacare strategy launched in the Senate, it was noteworthy that not one of the five women senators was part of the negotiations. Two of those women senators -- Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) sit on the Senate healthcare committee and Collins had actually drafted her own healthcare plan, in consultation with other senators, of course.

One can argue that the third Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito (W Va) was dragged to the party. I'm in two West Va. Facebook groups, and the organized appeal to Capito from her constituents was breathtaking. The level of professionalism in social media video-making was awesome. West Va. doctors and nurses came home from 12-15 hr. shifts and made a video in the kitchen before going to bed. Voters were concise and informed with facts. The level of emotions remained constrained, as voters laid out the facts for Capito.

These scenes were playing out all over America, but it was the three women senators -- Collins, Murkowski and Capito who brought down the Senate yesterday, and there is no reason to believe they will relent.

Simply stated, the Senate Republican women, originally left out of the process, killed it.

“I did not come to Washington to hurt people,” Capito tweeted.

“I do not think that it’s constructive to repeal a law that is so interwoven within our health care system without having a replacement plan in place,” Collins said in a statement.

“I cannot vote to proceed to repeal [Obamacare] without reform that allows people the choice they want, the affordability they need and the quality of care they deserve,” Murkowski said.

In the Senate's incremental world, three no votes is enough to stop a bill from even getting a chance for a full vote.

President Trump has called for a working session tonight, in an attempt to salvage some go-forward plan for a repeal of Obamacare. Senator Collins has already said she's not going because by the time someone invited her, she could not cancel her existing commitment. Neither Capito's or Murkowski's Twitter mention attending any meeting tonight.

For the time being, Planned Parenthood has once again been spared. Both Collins and Kurkowski were on the record saying 'no' to defunding Planned Parenthood. All three women were totally opposed to the cutting of Medicaid funding -- the source of payments to Planned Parenthood. It was nice to see Planned Parenthood escape once again, but this time it wasn't the center of the controversy.

To be continued . . .