"Kick Me"

So the Democratic strategy for tomorrow's health care summit has now been revealed......and its the equivalent of walking in with a "kick me" sign on their back.

At a private meeting today, top Democrats settled on a strategy for tomorrow’s summit: They will strive to project a strong sense that they’re in “listening mode,” even as they make it clear that under no circumstances will they scrap their plans and start again, sources say.

Top Dems also agreed to make a concerted effort to highlight Republican ideas that are already in Obama’s bill, in order to disarm GOP charges that Dems aren’t serious about compromise, the sources add.

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the other Congressional Dems attending the meeting gathered today behind closed doors to chart their plan for tomorrow. Attendees agreed on the need to strike a balance between projecting openness to GOP ideas, while leaving no doubt that if Republicans don’t compromise, Dems will move forward.

“The consensus that was arrived at is that we have to be in listening mode,” one senior Dem aide familiar with the meeting tells me. “We will say, `We are listening to your ideas, we have been and we’ll continue to do so. But at some point, if you are not gonna be willing to vote for this, we have to move forward.’”

Yeah, good luck with that.

The Repubicans are going to come in with flamethrowers tomorrow and they are going to try to burn down as much of the support for the bill as they can in six hours. They have already telegraphed that they won't be bringing any ideas of their own so what do the Democrats think they will be doing with their time?

Listening mode, heh. Welp, if the Dems really fall through on this strategy you can full expect the Republicans to frame the entire debate tomorrow and you will see even more skittish Dems running for the hills. This has all the makings of an unmitigated disaster.