Calling the Republican bluff on health care

Cesca; Willis

This is all playing out nicely. With this idea of a televised summit, the president called the Republican bluff about listening to their (ridiculous) ideas about healthcare. It's not even 48 hours into the announcement of the idea and the Republicans are already struggling to wiggle out of the thing.

And the latest word via Countdown is that the Republicans won't meet with the president unless reconciliation is taken off the table. Ezra Klein told Keith Olbermann that the president should agree with that demand -- but only if the Republicans agree to an up-or-down vote. No filibuster.

But beyond the finer points of the Republican demands, it's obvious that they simply have no interest in having any summit (televised or not), and they have even less interest in passing healthcare reform.

Bluff successfully called. Flawless victory.