Appearing on NBC's Meet The Press (2/28, Gregory), White House health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle called on Congress to hold a "simple up-or-down" on healthcare reform -- a statement the AP (3/1, Kuhnhenn) sees as signaling "Obama's intention to push the Democratic-crafted bill under Senate rules that would overcome GOP stalling tactics." The AP adds that while "DeParle was optimistic that the president would have the votes to pass the massive bill. But none of legislation's advocates who spoke on Sunday indicated that those votes were in hand." Said DeParle, "I believe that we will have the votes to pass this in Congress." DeParle added that the President is "going to have more to say later this week about how he thinks is the best way to move forward. ... We're not talking about changing any rules here. All the president is talking about is...does it make sense to have a simple up-or-down vote on whether or not we want to fix these problems?"

        The Washington Post (3/1, Kornblut) reports, "It remains unclear whether Democrats have enough votes within their ranks for this strategy to work. At the same time, it is only 'one option' the President is considering, a senior White House official said Sunday." But "DeParle suggested Obama could endorse that option in the next few days." USA Today (3/1, Jackson) also reports that "Obama will announce his ideas for moving legislation forward in the next few days," according to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. In preparation for that step, says Politico (3/1, Brown), Democrats are trying to gain the rhetoric upper hand by "avoiding the word 'reconciliation,' in favor of 'simple majority.'"

        AFP (3/1) notes that Speaker Pelosi "answered 'yes'" when asked by ABC's This Week "whether she had the votes to pass a health reform bill," and the Wall Street Journal runs a similar story under the headline "Pelosi Confident On Health Vote." But the New York Times (3/1, Knowlton, Berger) reports that in the House, "of the 219 Democrats who initially voted in favor of the House measure, roughly 40 did so in part because it contained an amendment intended to discourage insurers from covering abortion." This time around, "some will almost certainly switch their yes votes to no because the version being pushed by Mr. Obama would strip out the House bill's abortion restrictions in favor of Senate language that many of them consider unacceptable." While "publicly, House Democratic leaders are trying to sound upbeat...none expects an easy road to passage."

        Politico (3/1, Brown) notes that on "Meet the Press" yesterday, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) said, "I'll tell you one thing, if Speaker Pelosi rams this bill through the House using a reconciliation process, they will lose their majority in Congress in November." The Hill (3/1, Hart, Fabian, subscription required), meanwhile, reports that on CNN, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) argued "that it is inappropriate to use the budget reconciliation measure to pass the bill with a simple majority vote in the Senate." When CNN's Candy Crowley told him that reconciliation "has been used 16 times since 1980 by Republicans to pass other legislation, some dealing with 'lesser issues,'" McConnell replied, "Something of this magnitude shouldn't be jammed down the throat of Americans who don't want it." CNN (3/1, Stewart) also covers the interview on its website.

        Health Reform Said To Depend On Obama Persuading Democratic Opponents. Albert R. Hunt writes in his column for Bloomberg News (3/1), "There are three realties in the final chapter of the legislative dance that will be the focus of scholars for years: ...any legislation probably has to pass before the congressional spring break .... It can only pass with the support of reluctant Democrats...and it's only going to happen if the president uses forceful persuasion on his wavering party members." Hunt adds, "Obama can't count on a single Republican vote" and "about 90 percent of Democratic lawmakers want to see a healthcare overhaul," yet "10 percent to 15 percent of that group wants it passed without their vote." So "Obama and congressional leaders are going to have to persuade as many as a half-dozen senators and about two-dozen House members to cast a tough vote." In fact, Hunt argues, "Obama's going to have to persuade some of the 39 House Democrats who voted against the legislation last year."