Just when it looked like things might really go off the road and into a Legislative Ditch, Democrats cut a deal with the moderate Blue Dogs to keep health care reform going in the House.

President Obama went out of his way to thank "some" Blue Dogs for helping in that effort.

"Those efforts are extraordinarily constructive in strengthening this legislation and bringing down its cost," he said in a written statement issued by the White House.

The good thing for the White House was that the deal at least gave the impression of momentum on reform, and made people sort of forget that President Obama wanted a vote in the House and Senate by next week.

Instead, he will be lucky to get final committee action in the House and Senate.

Still, nothing is set in concrete, and this thing could still come apart, especially in the Senate, where the Democrats need (and don't have) 60 votes.

"Of course, many groups still desperately want to block health reform, so it is still too early to be popping champagne corks," said Professor Leighton Ku of George Washington University in D.C.

Not as impressed about all this deal making was Michael Steele, the head of the Republican National Committee.

"Any Democrat, Blue Dog or not, that proposes raising taxes on small businesses during a recession and a time of severe unemployment to pay for government-run health care reform should have their head examined," said Steele in a written release.

One caveat is that a vote in the House and Senate won't occur until after Labor Day in September.

That gives both sides - but especially the opponents of the Democrats' plans - a lot of time to get their message out, especially in swing districts.

You could tell how much interest this is already generating by the fact that the web page for the House Energy and Commerce Committee was overwhelmed by people looking for information about the health care bill.

"The Energy and Commerce website is experiencing an unusually high number of visitors," read a bare-bones web page late Wednesday night.

"We are endeavoring to restore access as quickly as possible," it read, offering only two links where you could download the text of the health care bill and a section by section summary.

To help you out, you can find the Health bill at http://bit.ly/nSL2A  and the summary at  http://bit.ly/16FBo7