When a questioner, Ray Evans, said he believed the President wants to do too much at once and asked whether Boyd would “be willing to scrap everything” and start over to do pursue reform more incrementally, the congressman responded: “I think that is an excellent idea … we may end up there.”

Boyd’s comments are yet another indication of the difficulty facing the White House and congressional Democratic leaders as they try to pound out a health reform bill that can win the support of moderates like Boyd, who say the current proposal encroaches too much on private insurers, and liberal Democrats, who say the bill doesn’t go far enough to rein in the same for-profit companies.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) yesterday said the ideological divide is “as far apart as the two sides of the Grand Canyon” — a timely allusion coming a day after President Obama got a glimpse of just how wide that chasm is.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today issued a notice of withdrawal of nearly 1 million acres of BLM and U.S. Forest Service land around the Grand Canyon from new mining claims for the next two years to allow for more study and analysis.

The move drew the praise of conservation groups such as the Pew Environment Group, which has been hammering on the antiquated 1872 mining law and the pressing need for reform in light of thousands of new mining claims for minerals such as uranium, copper and gold in and around some of the nation’s most treasured national parks.