Where there's a wall...

If you can't through it, and you can't go over it, and you can't go under it...
what do you do?

Speaker Jeff Merkley won't give up the fight for children's health care. From the O:

"I'm meeting every day on this," said Merkley, D-Portland, in a meeting with Capitol reporters. "There will be another proposal on the House floor." ...

Merkley said he has formed a "work group" to look at the children's health plan and the proposed tax increase to see if there's room for compromise. He wouldn't discuss details of the meetings, but said Republicans have been included in the discussions.

But wait! The spokesperson for the Republican leadership says:

Nick Smith, spokesman for the House Republican caucus, took issue with House Speaker Jeff Merkley's statement that a new round of talks are under way to bring a cigarette tax increase to the floor. "We just want to clarify there are no organized negotiations going on. There are really no negotiations. It's misleading."

Great Scott! What's Merkley up to?

Russ Kelley, spokesman for Merkley, said the speaker is talking with Republicans, just not Republican leadership.

If you can't through it, and you can't go over it, and you can't go under it...
you go around it.