Shaping health-care reform: First, agree on shape of table

WASHINGTON — An intense argument has been raging ahead of Thursday's health-care summit: Will President Obama and lawmakers sit around a U-shaped table or a round one?

Seat assignments are no small matter. The outcome of the six-hour event could be shaped by whoever gains command of the room — or at least appears to from the vantage point of the four television cameras placed in carefully negotiated spots.

To that end, White House officials have been tussling with Republicans — and the television networks — over the arrangement of the room at Blair House.

The initial plan called for Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden to sit at the head of a U-shaped table, with lawmakers seated in front of them like an audience. But Republicans balked. A White House official said Tuesday that participants will be seated at tables in a "hollow square setup" — preferable to Republicans because it would put them on even footing with Obama.

A Republican aide said the White House had planned to restrict the table to the handful of officially invited guests, forcing other senators to sit with staff at what the aide indignantly referred to as "the kiddie table."

"We're not going to have members [of Congress] sitting in staff seats," the aide said. White House officials said Tuesday room would be found for everyone.

That issue settled, should Democrats and Republicans sit separately? Or, in a show of bipartisan comity, should seats be intermingled? That question is not settled.

"It's like the Vietnam peace talks," ABC News reporter Ann Compton said. "They spent more time arguing about the shape of the table than anything else."

Micromanaging political choreography isn't new. But the degree of interest in the details of Thursday's summit underscored the high stakes of the health-care effort — as well as a new level of anxiety among House Republicans, whose retreat in Baltimore last month was upstaged when Obama opened the session to television cameras. With him at center stage, the Republicans came across as props, unseen lawmakers asking questions.

The Blair House format will be different. Obama plans to make opening remarks, followed by opening statements from one Democrat and one Republican. Hours of discussion will follow, broken into four subject areas: controlling medical costs (introduced by Obama); insurance reform (introduced by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius); deficit reduction (introduced by Biden); and expanding health coverage (introduced by Obama).

Also uncertain is how appealing a backdrop Blair House will provide. People who did a walk-through last week said the acoustics were challenging. The room also is relatively small, with a piano in one corner.

Privately, GOP aides are calling the event "The Blair House Project" — after the 1999 horror movie "The Blair Witch Project."

"We've been open to moving it across the street," one GOP aide said. "It's going to get hot and crowded in there, if you think about 50 people in a small, cramped room for six hours. They're just so wedded to this idea, but nobody can explain why Blair House. The East Room is beautiful."

Information from the Tribune Washington Bureau is included

in this report.