Following up on today's meetings on Capitol Hill, the Obama administration has invited a small group of House Republicans to meet at the White House tonight to discuss the stimulus bill on the eve of the first vote.

The members were invited by chief of staff Rahm Emanuel for what the White House described as another effort to "hear ideas and gather input from House Republicans." Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is also expected to participate; Obama is not at this point. A spokesperson for one of the invitees said it may just be an "icebreaking session," but that he expects the recovery plan to be the focus.

The names on tonight's guest list are notable because they tend to be more moderate Republicans, most of whom represent districts that Obama carried last November. The group of eleven includes Reps. Mike Castle (R-DE), Charlie Dent (R-PA), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Fred Upton (R-MI).

At today's press briefing, Robert Gibbs said there was a "genuine sense of cooperation" on the Hill when President Obama spoke to the House and Senate Republicans, even as he downplayed expectations for a strong bipartisan vote when the House weighs in tomorrow.

"We'll take what we can get," Gibbs said. "I think the most important thing about tomorrow is keeping this process going. The American people deserve a process that understands the severity of the crisis that they're involved in, not to get involved in some animal house type food-fight on Capitol Hill."

He downplayed Republican objections that House Democrats have been less willing to show a bipartisan spirit in negotiations, and even digged at some in the GOP for being similarly partisan.

"I'll leave aside that some members of the leadership invited the president to come up and announced their position on the bill before he got there," he said.

Gibbs also signaled that Obama intends to make the trip down Pennsylvania Avenue often, not just to see the recovery plan through.

"This may be somewhat unique in this town," he said. "If the president becomes a walking comment box that gets an economic recovery plan faster into the American economic bloodstream, then my guess is they'll have to fill up the cars and we'll go up there a lot more often."