Obama Floats Another Trial Balloon

That's pretty much the best way I can describe this:

President Obama appears to be abandoning hopes for a bipartisan breakthrough on health care reform, as advisers say the president will try to reframe the debate by rallying Democrats around the partisan bills that have already advanced.

Top White House officials over the past few days have blasted Republicans who were part of a "Gang of Six" negotiating team on the Senate Finance Committee, accusing them of stonewalling progress on what was considered the only bipartisan package in Congress.

Two senior administration officials on Wednesday confirmed to FOX News that Obama is now actively considering a prime-time address from the Oval Office or an address to a joint session of Congress to invigorate the debate, as Congress returns from a rocky recess.

And the path forward, as the president sees it, is to unify Democrats around the three House bills and one Senate bill that have already passed out of committee. This strategy suggests the Senate Finance Committee is considered a lost cause and that the White House will use the Democratic Party's strong majority in both chambers to finish the job.

"We are entering a new phase driven in part by the actions of some in the GOP. They are essentially walking away from the table," said one senior adviser, referring to GOP Senate Finance Committee negotiators Charles Grassley of Iowa and Mike Enzi of Wyoming.

"Now is the time to begin to pull together the various strands and solutions from the four bills that have been marked up and other proposals," one adviser told FOX News. "Basically all the cards are on the table."

I think they're just trying to gauge the reaction of the GOP and voters more than planning a serious strategy. Given the bloodbath the Dems took in August, do they really want to throw this in the voters' faces by ignoring the GOP altogether?

I know they're desperate to pass a health care bill, but desperate enough to vote themselves out of power?