In the final hours before an expected Sunday vote on health care reform in the House, the few lawmakers who remain undecided will face pressures unlike any others that they have ever experienced.

"They look like zombies," said Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) of the Democrats who still had not announced their positions or were under pressure to switch.

Indeed, just down the way from us in the Speaker's Lobby just off the House floor sat Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), who on Thursday had shocked his fellow Democrats by publicly stating that he would vote against health care legislation.

A parade of reporters and lawmakers kept bending Lynch's ear about his decision.  He finally left, avoiding eye contact with me as he trudged out of the ornate room.

Later Lynch was seen in a frank talk on the House floor with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a chat that lasted for over 20 minutes.

While Republicans were enjoying the spectacle, more than happy to fan questions about secret deals and more, they also know what it's like to be a hunted lawmaker.

"When they call you to the cloakroom and say that the President is on the line," said Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), "it is awfully tough."

17 years ago, another lawmaker from Georgia faced a dilemma much like the one now for Democrats, as former Rep. Don Johnson (D-GA) repeatedly told the President and Vice President that he would not vote for a budget deal filled with tax increases.

"I remember it quite well," Johnson told me on Friday by phone from Georgia.  "That is tatooed inside my brain."

The pressure was so intense, that while speaking with Vice President Al Gore on the telephone, Johnson's top aide interrupted to tell him that President Bill Clinton was on another line for him as well.

"Hey Al, are you also calling Don Johnson?" the President said to Gore, as they were making calls from the same room in the White House.

Much like today, there were questions about what could get through the Senate.  President Clinton got Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to call Johnson to assure him that there would be consideration of a cap on the growth of entitlement spending.

The day of the big vote, Johnson was heading to the House floor for the last few minutes of debate, when he ran into his son, who was working that Summer on Capitol Hill, and told him he would be voting no.

But after sitting down and listening to the final speeches from future Speaker Newt Gingrich and other Republicans, Johnson had a change of heart.

Just then, a Page arrived with a note.  "The President was on the telephone in the Cloakroom."

And much as we have seen in recent days in the Congress in 2010 on health reform, Johnson in 1993 was about to change his mind and tell President Clinton he would vote with him.

Johnson told me that he understands what the undecideds are going through right now.

"I don't think I'll ever forget that time."

That budget vote started the freshman Democrat on a downhill slide, which resulted in Johnson's defeat in 1994, when Gingrich and the Republicans took control of Congress.

"I was running against an anti-Clinton movement," said Johnson, who noted the irony of what the big issue was in the Congress during the mid-term 1994 election year - health care reform.

"I was opposed to that," Johnson said, "but it didn't matter."

Johnson left Congress after one term, losing in a landslide, just another casualty on the Democratic side in 1994.

A lot of Republicans hope there is a repeat of exactly that this year.