Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

It is now evident to House leadership that their plan to amend the Senate health care bill and toss it back over to the upper chamber for final passage has been scuttled. Members of the House Democratic caucus are wandering far off the reservation, and the longer that persists, the more difficult it will be for leadership to pull them back into the corral.

In an attempt to regain control over an increasingly chaotic situation, leadership will hold a caucus meeting this afternoon*, and at stake could be the fate of the reform drive that has eaten most of the first year of Barack Obama's presidency.

To right the course, they'll have to convince rank and file members--but particularly progressives, who are now in full revolt--that success is still possible, half measures won't do, and failure is not an option. Given what members are saying, though, that won't be easy.

"What probably would be the best, at least from my perspective, for us to do, the best thing on health care, is to send pieces of the program -- pass them here, send them to the senate. Let the American people digest this bit by bit, bite by bite, because it is a very full plate and it's very complicated," said Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY)

Yarmuth's sentiments were echoed by Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-MA). "I think what we're going to have to do is do it on an incremental basis," Delahunt said. "There are aspects of both bills that have broad support. Some of it bipartisan. I think we take those measures, bring them to the floor and vote on them, and explain them."

Last night, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) told reporters, "When you have successful things like the public option, where the public grabs it and the White House walks away from it, you know sometimes I think that to some degree this outcome wasn't that unexpected."

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus says there's not much chance the Senate bill can pass on its own, and would like to see the entire reform process rerouted through the budget reconciliation process.

An aide to a progressive member echoes these sentiments. "This could be a golden opportunity in stemming the tea party tide," the aide said.

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