Dems Headed Toward Train Wreck on Health Reform?

After last week's futile health reform summit between President Obama and lawmakers, Democrats are moving full-speed ahead on passing their version of the legislation without any support from Republicans.

But it appears Nancy Pelosi, not Harry Reid will have the brunt of collecting enough votes. The Senate will have to use a controversial tactic that will require only a simple 51-vote majority for passage. Political analysts say Pelosi isn't being straight with the public when she says she has the votes in the House.

"Pelosi and other top House Democrats say publicly that they have the votes to push through a comprehensive package, but privately, they know they don’t," Politico's John Bresnahan and Jonathan Allen write.

Democratic strategist James Carville admitted as much on ABC's Good Morning America: "The math is pretty daunting. I don't think it's impossible, but it's going to be difficult. This is going to be a real, real fight."

CNN reports that Dems don't want to be seen as passing the entire reform under the Senate's simple majority legislative maneuver, known as budget reconciliation. According to the network, this is the way Dems see the reform package passing: "Democratic sources have said the general plan is for the House to pass the version the Senate passed last year with 60 votes. Meanwhile, negotiators in both chambers would agree to a separate package of changes to that legislation. That package would go before the Senate under reconciliation rules."

President Obama is "going to have more to say later this week how he thinks is the best way to move forward," Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press.