Dems Keep Quiet As Leaders Hash Out Key Health Care Details

Another day, and still a dearth of details. Senators and White House officials were almost comically tight-lipped throughout the afternoon on the progress of health care reform negotiations, even though it's clear by now that the people in the room hashing out the Senate's bill are getting down to the nitty gritty.

During a weekly caucus meeting, Democrats were briefed on the details of last night's health care powwow, yet, afterward, none were forthcoming with details.

"What I'm especially pleased about is that we're not rushing," said Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE). "I'm sure there's some who are impatient."

"It wasn't a townhall meeting at all. It was more like a prayer meeting," said Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), who declined to divulge any specifics.

"We got into it a little bit, not a lot," added Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). "[Leadership is] extremely open and working with everybody."

In a moment of coyness gone awry, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters, "we're leaning towards talking about the public option." Last night his spokesman Jim Manley said, without going into detail, that Senate and White House negotiators discussed "the public option, affordability, and other key issues," during their evening scrum.

TPMDC is hearing the negotiators are waiting to talk substantively about the public option for at least a few days. Waiting won't hurt the cause, given the new polls showing it is growing in support and the massive flood of calls Organizing for America sent Congress' way today. (The group just passed 200,000 calls, and staffers are telling us the majority of callers favor a public option.)

The group also is expecting new CBO figures that could suggest good news for public option supporters.

"I'm telling you, we're going to have a public option in this bill," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) said on MSNBC tonight.

A source tells TPMDC the huddles between the White House and the senators have been constructive and fairly bland so far, with no fireworks to speak of. Expect public option, the hardest part, to come up by Friday.

White House health care adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle told reporters today: "In fact, this is actually an easy process, and one that's going really well."

Tonight, they'll do it all over again. White House officials, including DeParle and Rahm Emanuel, will meet with Reid, and Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Max Baucus (D-MT) to continue hashing out the details.

From Reid's point of view, the radio silence makes sense. At stake is perhaps the most important bill of his career, and, given the minefield that is the U.S. Senate, he's trying to minimize the number of obstacles in his way. All things considered, he seems to be doing a pretty good job.

Additional reporting by Christina Bellantoni.