Republicans guilted into attending healthcare summit

After Obama schooled House Republicans at their NRCC meeting, the Obama administration announced a televised "healthcare summit" with the Republicans on Feb. 25 to try to recreate that dynamic and completely change the political geography beneath the Republicans blanket rejectionism.

The Republicans first response was to see the political peril in having to actually say their "proposals" out loud and to scream "trap," but that was widely mocked everywhere outside FoxNews.

So, their new strategy appears to be to accept the invitation, but to try to pre-spin it like a debate. This AP piece has a few of these new pre-spin bits. For instance,

The president has already said he'll moderate the forum, and the location and staging at the Blair House guest residence are of the White House's choosing, giving Democrats home-court advantage.

And they're not going to bring the blind, dogmatic pinatas for Obama to swing at,

House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and McConnell, his Senate counterpart, will attend the summit along with other top Republicans. Boehner and McConnell also get to invite four lawmakers each but have not said who they will be.

They tried to dodge it, and they couldn't (anywhere but FoxNews,) so now they're going to try to spin and control.

If they don't come with anything besides "tax cuts," I think they get slaughtered.