David Drucker of Roll Call reports:

Senate Democrats say they see no need to abandon the idea of using reconciliation to pass health care reform this year just because President Barack Obama has scheduled a bipartisan summit next week to try to break the impasse on Capitol Hill. [snip]

“I think it should be constantly pursued,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said Thursday when asked whether Democrats should take a break from drafting a reconciliation bill until after Obama's summit.

“I think the Republicans are pretty committed to the notion that obstructing everything that President Obama would like to accomplish is very key to their base and their political success,” Whitehouse added. “I don't see them departing from that strategy.”

Last Monday in a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel,  Minority Leader John Boehner and Whip Eric Cantor asked President Obama to take reconciliation off the table as "an important show of good faith" about his seriousness of seeking a bipartisan compromise on health care legislation.

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