Breaking: Dems Admit Health Care Summit Just for Show; Dems-Only Plan on the Way

Obama's "bipartisan" health care summit is a sham: we know it, the American people know it and now, Democrats are openly admitting it. The summit isn't even half over today and

Politico is reporting that Democrats are already planning to go forward next week with a "Democrats-only" plan:

After a brief period of consultation following the White House health-reform summit, congressional Democrats plan to begin making the case next week for a massive, Democrats-only health care plan, party strategists told POLITICO.

A Democratic official said the six-hour summit was expected to “give a face to gridlock, in the form of House and Senate Republicans.”

Democrats plan to begin rhetorical, and perhaps legislative, steps toward the Democrats-only, or reconciliation, process early next week, the strategists said.

After the summit, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) planned to take the temperature of their caucuses.

“The point [of the summit] is to alter the political atmospherics, and it will take a day or two to sense if it succeeded,” the official said.

Positive statements by Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) of late “are early signs the environment is already shifting a little in favor of revisiting health care.”

It's clear: Democrats are going to RAM THIS THROUGH.

An e-mail from a House Democratic leadership aide gives a sense of the party’s post-summit message.

“The President walked into a room filled with the entire House Republican Conference. There were no pre-conditions, his only request was that it be open to the press so that the American people could see the exchange,” the aide e-mailed. “He answered every question with a thoughtful, comprehensive response. He spoke for over an hour and discussed substantive policy issues.

“The President never once worried about it being a trap. He didn’t cry about the room set-up. His conduct reflected someone who was confident in his ideas, respectful of the other side, and not afraid to debate important issues. … Some Republicans have insulted the Summit by calling it a set-up or a taxpayer-funded infomercial. Now we learn they have spent several weeks organizing a rapid response operation.”

A House Republican aide said this would be the party’s post-summit message: "Americans want to scrap the Democrats' massive bill and start over with clean sheet of paper to work on step-by-step, common-sense reforms that lower health care costs."