The Senate voted 60-39 early Tuesday on three steps leading up to a final vote Thursday morning on sweeping health care legislation. Democrats, who remained united in favor of the bill, began celebrating their imminent victory with a raucous news conference attended by a number of advocacy groups whose cheers made the event seem like a high school pep rally. Republicans, who remained united in opposition, said that they were still searching the bill for unexpected provisions and that they would not agree to hold the last vote any sooner than Christmas Eve. Republicans reiterated their complaint that Democrats had rushed the process. Democrats said that Republicans were creating unneeded procedural delays. Each party said the other would be on the wrong side of history. 'Today we are taking another step toward passing a bill that has not seen light of day for very long,' said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. 'We hope that there is still a chance that this bill will not become law.' The assistant majority leader, Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., said Democrats would clear every procedural hurdle thrown at them by Republicans and complete work on the legislation. 'Thirty million Americans who currently don't have health insurance have the peace of mind of knowing that they have health insurance,' Durbin said. He added, 'This is a real debate over whether or not health care is going to be a right or a privilege in America.' With that, the clerk called the roll. The votes were all along party lines, with Sen. James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma absent, leaving the Republicans with 39 votes in opposition. Perhaps most striking, given the historic nature of the legislation to revamp the health system, was that on 23rd straight day of floor debate senators seemed to run out of new things to say. With the outcome all but certain, they gamely repeated many of the competing arguments that had dominated the discourse for weeks. Party leaders tried to ease the rancor. 'There's a lot of tension in the Senate,' the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said on the floor after the third vote was completed. 'But I would hope everyone would go back to their gentlemanly ways.' Party leaders announced an agreement on Tuesday afternoon to hold the final health care vote beginning at 8 a.m. Thursday, allowing lawmakers to race to the airport to get home for Christmas. Lawmakers were growing increasingly anxious about their holiday travel plans and family obligations. 'I have a 4-year-old and an 8-year-old who are convinced that Santa Claus can be in both Washington and Connecticut,' said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn. 'That's our latest challenge. I sent an e-mail to Santa.' At the news conference after the votes, Democratic advocacy groups cheered and applauded as Reid, Dodd, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, entered the ornate Mansfield Room. Reid, visibly relieved after securing the votes needed to complete the bill by Christmas, unfolded an elaborate baseball metaphor. He described Baucus as the speedy lead-off hitter, compared Dodd to Joe Morgan as the versatile No. 2 in the lineup, likened Harkin to Lou Gehrig batting third, and, in a rare moment of boastfulness, put himself in Babe Ruth's cleanup spot. But Reid quickly returned to modesty. 'For me, for once in my life, I'm batting cleanup,' Reid said. 'Because when I played baseball, I couldn't bat cleanup. But by the time it got to me through Baucus, Dodd and Harkin, it was pretty easy.' On the Senate floor, much of the day was devoted to debate about special deals inserted into the bill for specific states or constituencies. Republicans likened the deals to bribery, while Democrats defended them. Several senators said they would try to get additional Medicaid money for their states, as Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., did for his. 'Other governors will be on their congressmen and senators to make sure their states are held harmless,' Harkin said. 'Sen. Nelson may have done all the states a big favor.' The health care bill greatly expands Medicaid, and states would have to pick up some of the cost starting in 2017. However, under a late change, Nebraska would be exempted, and the federal government would pick up the entire cost for certain people who become eligible for Medicaid there. Republicans have criticized the Nebraska provision as the 'Cornhusker kickback,' but Nelson pushed back. 'It's not a special deal,' Nelson said. 'It's a fair deal. Some people said I was getting money for Nebraska. That's wrong. I was just getting rid of an underfunded federal mandate. There's nothing sleazy about it. I cracked the door open for other states.' 