At this hour, the Democratic caucus in the House is scheduled to meet in a mandatory meeting to take up the health care bill. By the end of that session, we should know where the caucus is at as far as what kind of bill – and what kind of public option – they will bring to the floor. Leadership has been whip counting for three days, and there have been conflicting reports over how many firm yes votes there are for a so-called “robust” public option, one tied to Medicare +5% rates. The best guess is that leadership came up a bit short, but that’s really premature at this point.

When we know, we’ll know. It looks like Nancy Pelosi made the best possible effort to get those votes, and if something less sweeping gets to the floor, the fault will lie with individual members of the House.

Then there’s the question of what happened at that evening meeting between Senate leaders and the President. Anonymous sources are throwing around conflicting reports about whether the President expressed support for Olympia Snowe’s trigger or made no statement of preference at all. You’ve seen the links, you know where to get them.

Here’s my basic feeling on this. There has been demonstrated value in going apeshit on every unsubstantiated rumor with regard to health care. It has made Democratic politicians, from the House to the White House, “work the yo-yo” and immediately deny their comments. But this intense focus on one comment or another does to a certain extent serve powerful interests.

Whether consciously or unconsciously, the media and politicians figured out during the 2008 campaign that leaking anonymous tips or highlighting “X said Y” didn’t just rouse traditional media. It kept its consumers in the blogosphere busy as well. And that model has survived to this health care debate. A White House source leaks something to Politico or some other outlet, and everybody chases the soccer ball. This government by trial balloon is very seductive, it’s easy to get people talking about them and it fills up the day. But it’s a sad example of the cautiousness of this White House, as well as the link-chasing and traffic-chasing that has started to define at least a corner of new media.

They can work the yo-yo all they want, but sooner or later, someone in government will have to make a decision on all this. And when they do, they cannot hide behind an anonymous source. House and Senate leaders and the President should know by now that they will be judged by their actions, and people will respond accordingly. In the meantime, those activists who have prospered by backing their representatives into a corner based on anonymous leaks and tips should probably keep doing it. That’s a vital part of activism in this digital era, and without it a real crappy health care bill would probably be on its way to the President for signage. There’s a balance, however. And everybody chasing the soccer ball often leaves the goal mouth uncovered.