The Speaker’s office denied any deal with Bishop Stupak and his monsignors last night, and now this morning, a press conference they were planning for 11am has been put on hold. Lynn Woolsey denied on the record that there was a deal, probably because of what she said later, “all pro-choice female Dems will bolt if Stupak prevails.”

Now the Democrats are calling the last card on Stupak – his mentor, John Dingell.

Veteran Democratic Rep. John Dingell vowed Saturday to work to defeat fellow Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak (D) on abortion in the healthcare bill.

Dingell, the longest-serving member of the House whose career has centered around healthcare reform, said he would work to “beat” Stupak’s efforts to add additional restrictions on federal support for abortion to the healthcare bill before the House.

“I strongly disagree with Bart,” Dingell said during an appearance on MSNBC. “I think he’s wrong.”

Both the anti-choice and pro-choice side have the power to stop the leadership from getting to 216 votes. I’m revamping the whip count chart a bit to reflect that from the anti-choice perspective. From the pro-choice perspective, Diana DeGette still holds a letter with 40 names on it, all of whom would vote no if the Stupak deal came to pass, and they wouldn’t need that many – 10 would probably be sufficient.

The path of least resistance remains going around Stupak by peeling off a couple members of his bloc. But this will probably go all day. The Rules Committee has already started their markup, and remember in November, the deal wasn’t made to get a vote on the Stupak amendment until late on the night of the committee hearing.