Pat Dollard

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Politico:

The GOP’s first demand for Thursday’s health care summit was simple.

No podium.

They wanted the six-hour talks to take place around a table with House and Senate members sitting at the same height as President Barack Obama, according to a senior Senate GOP aide.

“We don’t want any more of that Professor Obama lecturing to us stuff,” said one staffer, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another aide circulated pictures of Obama speaking at various events using his favorite platform, an elevated lectern perched above an audience of upraised, adoring faces.

Republicans got their wish. “Participants will be seated at tables in a hollow square setup. They’ll be identified with name cards,” reads the White House summit schedule.

The issue might seem petty, but it illuminates just how seriously Hill Republicans regard every detail of the high-stakes meeting — which comes weeks after Obama embarrassed the House GOP Conference during a one-sided question-and-answer session at the party’s annual retreat in Baltimore.

The official objective of Thursday’s health care summit at Blair House is to air a frank, public exchange of ideas that could lead to a thus-far elusive bipartisan compromise demanded by the American people.

The Democrats’ unstated goal, of course, is to make congressional Republicans look like a bunch of whiny, cynical, ideologically bankrupt crybabies who don’t have a plan of their own.

A good performance by Obama, contrasting his $950 billion reform plan with the GOP’s scaled-back measures, could give the renewed effort to jump-start the process real momentum, shift public opinion and buck up Democrats eager to get past an issue that has endangered the party’s midterm prospects.

Optics, therefore, are everything.

Staffers for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his House counterpart, John Boehner, have insisted on subtle but significant changes in the format proposed by the White House, which has been represented by seasoned negotiator Phil Schiliro, Obama’s assistant for legislative affairs.

Many of the details have been worked out to a precision usually reserved for summits among global leaders or presidential debates.

For one thing, that table will be a big one. McConnell, irked by plans to limit seating to only core participants, secured a pledge to seat all House members and senators at the grownups’ table.

According to the White House, Obama will offer opening comments, followed by Republican and Democratic members chosen by their colleagues. The discussions will center on four themes: controlling costs and expanding coverage, both introduced by the president; insurance reforms, introduced by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; and reducing the deficit, introduced by Vice President Joe Biden.

The meeting will run from 10 a.m. until about 4 p.m. There will be a break for lunch, with buffet lunch provided for guests.

But unresolved questions, meaningful and microscopic, linger.

Which Republican will offer an opening statement? Will there be water on the table? Snacks? Will attendees have to munch their lunches in view of the cameras — or retire to a different room for their nosh? Will there be side tables at which members and senators can do nonsummit tasks?

To hash out the remaining details, McConnell and Senate Republican attendees — including Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and GOP Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) — will meet; Senate Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), will huddle with House Democrats, followed by a bipartisan walk-through at Blair House later in the day.

One GOP idea that hasn’t yet been approved: a suggestion by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a potential 2012 presidential hopeful, that governors be allowed to attend the meeting.

“I don’t know if the NGA will be in the room,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. “Obviously, I can’t imagine that if a governor from X state didn’t have a concern — that had a concern, that it can be birthed by any number of people attending the meeting on either side.”

Gibbs took a dig at the notion of high-stakes talks on staging. “Maybe we’ll just — you know, maybe those little desks they give you in like elementary school that would otherwise be uncomfortable and hard to fit into might be the best way forward,” Gibbs said Tuesday during his daily press briefing.

A reporter quickly suggested an alternative: Democrats and Republicans could spend the six hours sitting on the floor like kindergartners, legs crossed, apple-sauce.

“Yeah,” Gibbs added, approvingly, “just sitting on the floor and figuring it all out.”

The larger question — whether the parties can actually agree on anything — is completely up in the air, but Republicans have been downsizing expectations along with table height.

“This bill is a nonstarter,” House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “The president insists on bringing back a bill that the American people have resoundingly rejected,” he said.