Rep. Adam Smith

It’s a dizzying, high wire act that’s now on display in Washington, D.C. It’s called putting a health care reform bill together. And just watching it happen is crazy-making. The vote could come as soon as this weekend.

President Obama is trying to rope them in – bringing together holdouts like abortion opponents who fear the bill expands access to abortion, and liberals arguing the bill does not go far enough to expand access to health care, in support of historic reform that could overhaul the nation’s health care system. And keeping track of the moving parts is a full-time job.

 But the parts are moving. A key Democratic holdout, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, became the first liberal opponent of the House bill to announce support for the more restrictive Senate legislation, the Los Angeles Times reported. At the same time, a key anti-abortion Democrat, Rep. Dale E. Kildee of Michigan, said he also would support the bill.

"If I can vote for this bill, there are not many others that shouldn't be able to," said Kucinich, a leader of the movement to provide universal healthcare by offering the Medicare program to all Americans. Among social conservatives, the legislation won an important new endorsement from dozens of leaders of Catholic nuns, including a group that says it represents more than 90% of the 59,000 nuns in the United States. That contrasted with the staunch opposition of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which issued a statement Monday arguing that the bill would not adequately guard against using federal funds for abortion. The nuns disagreed, and so did a retired bishop.

It may have started off badly, but it's turning out okay. We hope.

As long as members of Congress were heading home for the August recess without having acted on health care reform, why not use the time to discuss the issue with the folks that elected them? That's the part that started off badly, as special-interest-paid "bus tours" started loading up town hall meetings in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Texas and Maryland with hecklers given instructions to yell and act mad, real mad. But that soon became known for it what it was, and that seems be sparking a genuine issues discussion, as health care reform supporters are now turning out to make their voices heard. The stage was set this week in Denver, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned up at a homeless medical clinic, Democratic congress members in tow. Antis and pros were ready.

"The plan for August," Pelosi said at the clinic, "is to have a discussion, to listen carefully to what people are saying."

Okay, folks got a little riled in Denver. The Denver Post ran a photo of one pro-reform protester ripping a protest sign out of the hands of an anti-reform protester. Antis are all over the place with loaded words  like "socialized medicine." (Can anyone say Medicare?) Hey, but they came out, they talked. Both sides got heard.

Then there's a Washington state Democratic congressman, Rep. Brian Baird, who shut down the conversation, canceling his August town halls for fear of things getting out of hand. Baird told reporter Les Blumenthal of McClatchy Newspapers that his decision was partly prompted by intimidation and harassment from right-wing opponents of health care reform.