A weekly roundup of the buzz from the Sunday talk shows

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) yesterday reversed her stance from a week earlier, appearing resigned that Democrats will not persuade enough Republicans to pass an expansion of a children's health insurance program over President Bush's veto.

"Isn't that sad for America's children?" she said on ABC's "This Week." Her second appearance on a Sunday talk show in as many weeks came days before the House is expected to vote again on the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Last week, Pelosi was far more optimistic about the chances of overriding Bush's veto, saying on "Fox News Sunday" that the Democrats need "about 14 Republican votes" to reach the required two-thirds majority.

This week, Pelosi's Republican counterpart, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio), was on Fox, and he said he is confident that "we will have the votes to sustain the president's veto."

The White House has signaled that it wants to compromise with Democrats over the program, but any agreement seemed distant yesterday.

Pelosi said she has never heard from Bush about the program, and she reiterated that she is unwilling to support legislation that would cover fewer children than the current bill's 10 million.

The Senate already has a sufficient majority to override the veto, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted on ABC that the White House and congressional Democrats will strike a deal.

"Neither side is going to leave these kids uninsured. It's become kind of a political football, which is really unfortunate. But the coverage is going to be provided in some way," McConnell said.

McCain Feeling 'Traction': Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the onetime Republican front-runner, said that as he campaigns around New Hampshire and Iowa as an underdog, he has been liberated "in a way."

Speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation," he said, "I think that this campaign is now heating up. People are paying attention, average voters, and I think we're getting the traction. But we've got a long way to go. It's a long, hard pull."

He acknowledged that he is not living up to his hopes for Iowa, where polls show him in fourth or fifth place. "I've been trying to spend a lot of time in Iowa and do better there, which we're not doing as well as we should," he said.

By Zachary A. Goldfarb