Pelosi to House Dems: No, really, the public option is still possible

(By Jared Allen and Jeffrey Young, The Hill) - Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday told her caucus she would not let the House be forced into signing off on the Senate’s healthcare bill.

Pelosi spent two hours addressing her Caucus via conference call on Thursday for the first time since she agreed to let the Senate bill serve as the vehicle for delivering a congressional health reform bill to the White House.

But Pelosi insisted from the onset that the House would not simply accept the Senate bill, despite the extremely fragile coalition that allowed a bill to emerge from the Senate.