Kathleen Sebelius at a Medicare conference earlier today, saying the "bottom-line" is that the White House continues to "support the public option":
Here’s the bottom-line: absolutely nothing has changed. We continue to support the public option that will help lower costs, give American consumers more choice, and keep private insurers honest. If people have other ideas about how to accomplish these goals, we’ll look at those too, but the public option is a very good way to do this.
If this is a signal that the White House will not facilitate any deals to eliminate the public option, then this is good news. It should embolden progressives in the House and the Senate to stand firm, because at this point, the most important question isn't what can get through the Senate Finance Committee, but what can get through both the full Senate and the full House.
And on that question, the Anthony Weiners and Sherrod Browns of the world are a helluva' lot more important than Kent Conrad.
Update (9:12AM): In comments after the conference, Sebelius went a step further, saying she believes that "the public option is the best way" to contain costs and provide competition.
Here's video.