Democrats are stealing a page out of Sybil in their approach to House Republican Whip Eric Cantor.

Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said yesterday that he will reach out to the Virginia Republican, who has said the two parties agree on 80 percent of a health care overhaul.

"I'm going to reach out to a number of Republicans in the next day," Hoyer told reporters. "I want to find out what that 80 percent is, because if we have 80 percent we ought to work on the other 20 percent."

But a few hours later the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which orchestrates the party's national House campaign strategy, circulated an item from the liberal Website thinkprogress slamming Cantor.

The ban on federal funding for ACORN adopted by the House Thursday almost certainly would have been ruled out of order -- if Democrats had cared to stand in the way.

The Republican-written amendment exceeded the jurisdiction of the committee that wrote the bill and had nothing to do with the legislation at hand, giving ample opportunity for any Democrat to raise a point of order against it because it was not germane to the underlying student-loan bill.

Some Republicans expected Democrats to object and kill the "motion to recommit" that triggered the amendment. But none did. Instead, the whole House voted, 345-75, to prevent the beleaguered catchall community-organizing outfit from getting federal funding.

So even the 75 Democrats who voted with ACORN already had silently assented to the federal-funding ban. After these videos surfaced, it's not hard to understand why.

Everyone in Washington loves to wave around a Congressional Budget Office estimate as unimpeachable proof of an argument.

That's been as much the case with the health care bills moving through the Congress as any legislation in recent memory, with CBO releases on the House's HR 3200 and the Finance Committee's new draft legislation serving as gospel for Republicans, Democrats, conservative and liberal pundits, and journalists -- even this blogger -- alike.

But the secret of the scores is this: So far, they're not based on CBO's own independent analysis.

"The estimated impact of the provisions related to health insurance coverage is based on specifications provided by the committee staff, rather than on a detailed analysis of the legislative language," CBO wrote in its "preliminary analysis" of HR 3200 on July 17.

"There are several reasons why the preliminary analysis that is provided in this letter and its attachments does not constitute a comprehensive cost estimate for the proposal," the agency wrote on Wednesday in its analysis of the Senate Finance Committee's draft.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., is preparing to send a bipartisan letter to President Obama opposing an anticipated request for more troops in Afghanistan.

"We oppose any increase in U.S. troops in Afghanistan, especially in light of the fact that there is no exit strategy," said McGovern, who is still circulating the letter for signatures.

The top American official in Iraq, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is expected to make an official request for more troops soon.

North Carolina Rep. Walter B. Jones, a one-time supporter of the Iraq War who became its most fierce GOP critic in Congress, is signing on to the McGovern letter, ensuring it has support in both parties.

"The president needs to slow down," said Jones, who represents the Marine base Camp Lejeune. "We're going to be more demanding of 'What are we trying to achieve?' because our troops are worn out."

The draft health care bill unveiled by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., on Wednesday contains language allowing consumers to sign up for health care at departments of motor vehicles, as well as hospitals, schools and Social Security offices.

The provision appears aimed, like the motor voter law is with registering to vote, at using the necessary evil of a trip to the DMV to facilitate the purchase of health insurance.

Could it also boost the number of voters -- filling out two forms while waiting in line isn't much harder than filling out one -- at a time when voter registration at DMVs appears to have fallen off?

Hoping to hear soon on that from the League of Women Voters.

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone with even a modicum of respect for Congress who thinks Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., has a leg to stand on in breaking the standard decorum of a presidential address to a joint session by yelling "Lie. You lie" during the speech.

Even Wilson was for apologizing before he was against it. But the episode raises an interesting set of questions: Is his sin one of tone? Is it one of content? Is it one of venue? Is it one of timing?

The answer: All of the above.

It's not the first time a president has heard a catcall during a joint session. It's not that public officials are innocent of using even more personal terms to denounce a president.

Decorum has been breached in the House chamber many times before. And presidents routinely are accused of lying -- or at least intentionally misleading -- even by members of their own party sometimes. Put them all together, though, and Wilson is the outlier as a contestant in the lying game.

For a more socially and politically graceful way to say the president lied during a joint session of Congress, recall the words of a certain junior senator from Illinois in his response to President Bush's 2008 State of the Union address.

Here's what then-Sen. Barack Obama said: "And finally, tonight we heard President Bush say that the surge in Iraq is working, when we know that's just not true."

And, as Warner Wolf used to say, let's go to the videotape.

To add a bit of bipartisan flavor to his address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night, President Obama said that he wants to review options for altering the nation's medical malpractice laws, an idea supported by most Republicans and at least a few Democrats.

For the job of looking into malpractice options, he tapped Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a former executive director of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association who has said she doesn't believe that litigation is a significant driver of costs in the health care system.

Democrat Blanche L. Lincoln's elevation to chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee makes her the first woman -- and the first Arkansan -- to head the committee with jurisdiction over farm policy.

Tiny but very rural Vermont has been home to five Agriculture Committee chairmen, the largest number for any state since the panel's inception in 1825. The last Vermonter to hold the position, from 1987 to 1995, was Patrick J. Leahy, the Democrat who currently heads the Judiciary Committee.

Lincoln is taking the Ag Committee gavel from Democrat Tom Harkin, who was only the second senator from the farm state of Iowa to ever head the panel. Harkin shifted over to take the chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee vacated by the Aug. 25 death of Massachusetts Democrat Edward M. Kennedy.

In early 2008, Congress instructed the Justice Department to investigate whether any crimes were committed in the earmarking of $10 million for a proposed Florida interchange known as the "Coconut Road" project in the 2005 highway law.

But despite the congressional mandate for an investigation, which was included in a measure making technical corrections to the highway law, neither the Justice Department nor Alaska Republican Don Young, the 36-year House veteran at the center of the controversy, will say whether the probe is under way. The senator whose interest sparked Congress to act, Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, wants answers.

Chief among his questions is who covertly funneled money to the Coconut Road project by rewriting an earmark in the highway bill after both chambers had passed it but before the president signed it into law.

"Dr. Coburn believes those who inserted the $10 million Coconut Road earmark into a bill that had already passed both houses of Congress acted outside the bounds of the law and Constitution. The Coconut Road episode was about more than earmarking; it was about the integrity of the democratic process," Coburn spokesman John Hart said. "As Congress once again takes up transportation funding, DOJ should complete its assignment and fully investigate this matter in order to restore and safeguard the integrity of the legislative process."

A conservative Democratic House member was proud to show off the T-shirt above on Tuesday evening. But ... he asked not to be identified by name.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said repeatedly, in hard-to-mistake terms, that she wants a public insurance option to be part of the health care overhaul working its way through Congress.

But if the California Democrat doesn't get her way -- if a public option is only triggered by a failure of private competition to bring down costs -- she says that public option may be more robust than the one conservative Blue Dog Democrats negotiated in the Energy and Commerce Committee's version of the House bill.

The group won a concession that a public insurance agency would negotiate reimbursement rates with health care providers rather than tying the rates to Medicare reimbursement standards, which is the mechanism favored by liberals in the Democratic Caucus.

"They'd be better getting a public option now than one that is triggered because if you have a triggered public option, it's because the insurance industry has demonstrated that they're not cooperating, they're not doing the right thing, and I think they'll have a tougher public option to deal with," Pelosi said Tuesday, echoing past sentiments.

Hear that, Blue Dogs and health providers? If there's a trigger, your deal may be shot.

Republicans have picked Louisiana Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., a veteran cardiothoracic surgeon, to deliver a response to President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.

The standard for Louisiana Republicans giving televised replies to Obama was set -- and set low -- by Gov. Bobby Jindal in a widely panned retort to Obama's first address to a joint session back in February.

No doubt Republicans are hoping Boustany's mulligan will land a little closer to the pin.

"I'm pleased Charles has agreed to speak to the American people about a Republican vision for reform and the need for both parties to come together to craft a responsible proposal at a time when people across the country are focused on jobs," Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio said in announcing the choice of Boustany.

President Obama heard a rallying cry for a public insurance option during a health care conference call with leaders of four Democratic caucuses on Friday.

But he made no commitment to support the idea, leaving many disappointed liberals convinced that he will not embrace it in his address to a joint session of Congress next Wednesday.

Subscribers to CQ.com can get the full story there, but here are some highlights of the discussion, as described to me and colleagues Greg Vadala and Ed Epstein by CQ sources:

• Members of the Black Caucus, the Progressive Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus and the Asian Pacific American Caucus pressed Obama to put up a stronger fight for the public option, on which he has been reticent and which his advisers have signaled he is ready to jettison.

• Obama didn't bite, asking them instead to define better what the term "public option" means to them.

• He raised the possibility -- as one of a number of available ideas -- of using a trigger mechanism to establish a public insurance agency only if the costs of private insurance don't go down and the quality of care doesn't go up. Progressive leaders have said they will not vote for a bill that has a delayed trigger mechanism for the public option.

President Obama is calling lawmakers today to discuss his health care plans in advance of next Wednesday's address to a joint session of Congress.

The outreach to Capitol Hill, in the form of at least one conference call, comes as liberals are fretting over their expectation that Obama will abandon their beloved government insurance option for the otherwise uninsured.

Here's my story from this morning. I'll update with reaction in the middle of the afternoon.

The leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent President Obama a letter that threatens to withhold support for a health care overhaul if it does not include a public option -- and if it does not reverse a deal with Blue Dogs for negotiated rather than fixed reimbursement rates for providers.

"Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, a public option built on the Medicare provider system and with reimbursement based on Medicare rates -- not negotiated rates -- is unacceptable," CPC co-chairs Lynn Woolsey of California and Raul M. Grijalva of Arizona wrote.

The letter was first reported by Plum Line blogger Greg Sargent.

Just like the president's arm's-length treatment of the public option is not new, the response of the liberal leaders is more a restatement than a news-breaker.

In advance of President Obama's Sept. 9 address to a joint session of Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus's health care task force sent him a letter Thursday reiterating support for its priorities.

There's no threat in the tone, but it's pretty clear that the caucus is making sure its marker is visible to the president.

Here's a snapshot of what the CBC is asking of the president:

• Don't cut the cost
• Keep a "robust" public option
• Fight to address health disparities
• Ensure Americans living in territories have parity with those in the 50 states and D.C.
• Apply any savings from prevention to replacing current pay-fors.

It should be noted that the Congressional Budget Office says prevention measures are likely to increase, rather than decrease, costs.

Shortly before they left town for the August recess, President Obama offered an open September invitation to his house for any lawmaker who wanted to discuss his health care overhaul plans in detail.

"They will have all of August to review the various legislative proposals. When we come back in September, I will be available to answer any question that members of Congress have. If they want to come over to the White House and go over line by line what's going on, I will be happy to do that," Obama said at a Raleigh, N.C., high school on July 29.

Now some of his harshest critics are calling him on that promise and asking for an invitation.

The Susan B. Anthony List is promising to spend $2 million in an ongoing campaign to pummel vulnerable House and Senate Democrats over the virtual certainty that Democratic health overhaul plans would increase access to insurance plans -- including publicly funded ones -- that cover abortion.

The SBA List is the conservative debutante answer to the liberal grand dame EMILY's List among abortion-focused political action committees. Hot-copy making Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., already has participated in a conference call with abortion foes as part of the campaign.

It has set its sights on Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, as well as Reps. Alan Grayson and Suzanne M. Kosmas of Florida, Debbie Halvorson of Illinois, Frank Kratovil Jr. of Maryland, Walt Minnick of Idaho, Glenn Nye and Tom Perriello of Virginia, Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire and Harry Teague of New Mexico.

"The Votes Have Consequences project will shine the light of the truth on legislators who favor government-backed abortion in health care reform," SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said.

As his White House aides were telling reporters yet again on Tuesday that President Barack Obama will not insist on a government-backed insurance agency, his political aides were using the prospect of the so called public option to raise money from Democrats who support it.

Beyond the money, the president's political Web site is an organizing hub for a nationwide network of public option vigils scheduled for tonight.

It's a political paradox that pits private provocation against prudish public posturing.

And who knows, maybe it will work -- at the very least, Obama will have kept his activists activated and his campaign arm funded.