The "let's fix it in conference" idea just lost a lot of steam.
House Democrats can't always get what they want, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters today. But if they spin it right, he said, they just might find they got what they need.
Faced with a likely public option-free health care reform bill from the Senate, Hoyer said House Democrats will vote to move the reform process forward without government-run insurance included....
Though they may have to sacrifice the public option in order to craft a reform package acceptable to the the fickle Senate Democratic coalition, Hoyer said House Democrats still reserve the right to tinker with the carefully-crafted Senate compromise, whatever it may be.
"Just take the Senate bill? That's not gonna happen," Hoyer said. "There are key differences between the Senate proposal and ours and we'll just have to work that out."
It's pretty dangerous to say that without having seen the bill, particularly since the House bill is stronger. And still undetermined is what Nelson's going to extract from Reid on abortion, now that he's seen Reid get rolled by Lieberman.