White House, Democrats Battle Public Option Leaks

Politico reported Friday morning that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi counted her votes Thursday night and concluded she did not have enough to pass the "robust" public option, the strongest of several government insurance plans Democrats have been considering adding to the health care reform bill. But sources tell Talking Points Memo that House leadership is nowhere near deciding to scrap the robust option and that someone who opposes it leaked the "not enough votes" story to pressure Pelosi into compromising.

The White House immediately questioned the Politico assertion that Pelosi had decided not to pursue the option. Appearing on MSNBC, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett shot back at the reporter who wrote the story, saying she doesn't "know if Mike Allen can count votes or not." Anonymous House sources told TPM that the some Democrats might have intentionally leaked the vote-counting story to put pressure on the House speaker at the last minute. Later Friday morning, Pelosi's spokesman confirmed that she had not, in fact, made a decision about which option the Democrats would pursue.

Another rumor pushed in the Politico story is that the White House is leaning toward a "trigger" option championed by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), in which a limited public option would only kick in under certain circumstances. The story asserted that "Obama told Democratic leadership at the White House Thursday evening that his preference is for the trigger." That conflicted with a New York Times account of the meeting, which said Obama had not announced a preference. The White House responded Friday by publicly denying that Obama announced favor for any particular public option at the meeting.

TPM has a helpful guide to the leaks and responses here.