NOW THAT IT'S PASSED, REPUBLICANS LIKE THE SPENDING.... As you may have heard, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) rushed back to Capitol Hill last night, giving the economic stimulus bill its 60th vote, and sending the package to the White House.  The final vote on the $787 billion measure broke down exactly as expected.

Lieberman Stepped Up Role As Talks Ebbed  —  Sen. Ben Nelson spent the last two weeks either surrounded by reporters or huddled with centrist members of both parties, hashing out a deal to move the president's stimulus through the chamber.  —  On the way to the most critical of those meetings …

PROFILES IN COURAGE.... Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) was, of course, one of only three Republican lawmakers in Congress to support the economic stimulus bill.  To hear him tell it, however, some of Specter's GOP colleagues wanted to vote for the package, but didn't think they could get away with it politically.

Stimulus Plan Places New Limits on Wall St. Bonuses  —  WASHINGTON — A provision buried deep inside the $787 billion economic stimulus bill would impose restrictions on executive bonuses at financial institutions that are much tougher than those proposed 10 days ago by the Treasury Department.

Blago hit up Burris for cash  —  Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's brother solicited U.S. Sen. Roland Burris for up to $10,000 in campaign cash before Blagojevich named Burris to the coveted post — something Burris initially failed to disclose under oath before an Illinois House impeachment panel, records and interviews show.

Public still sky-high on Obama ‘brand’  —  With Barack Obama's victory in passing a massive stimulus package marred by days of bad press—as not a single House Republican backed the bill, his Health Czar went down in flames and his second pick for Commerce Secretary walked away …

Recount trial: Coleman dealt blow, but no knockout  —  In a blow to Coleman, recount trial judges ruled out most rejected absentee votes.  —  Dealing a blow but not a knockout to Republican Norm Coleman's hopes, the judges in the U.S. Senate election trial on Friday tossed out most of the 19 categories …

Muslim girl in baptism row was fleeing an arranged marriage … The foster mother struck off for allowing a Muslim girl to convert to Christianity took the child in after she was threatened with an arranged marriage.  —  The woman, a devout Christian, was asked to care for the teenager …

Here's What $800 Billion Buys Today  —  The final version of the stimulus bill is ready to be voted on by the House and the Senate.  —  Here's the good news: The $246 million tax credit to Hollywood that made its way to the initial House bill and was removed in the Senate version didn't make it to the final bill.

F-Bomb Free Or Die!  —  It's kind of hard to tell from this Portsmouth Herald article.  But it sounds like your right to remove signs other people have planted without authority on your property, and to do so without interference from busybodies, and to express yourself when those things have transpired …

Justice Dept. Lawyers in Contempt for Withholding Stevens Documents  —  An angry federal judge held Justice Department lawyers in contempt yesterday for failing to deliver documents to former senator Ted Stevens's legal team, as he had ordered.  —  U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan called it …

A Smaller, Faster Stimulus Plan, but Still With a Lot of Money  —  On its way to becoming law, two crucial things happened to President Obama's economic recovery plan: It got smaller and faster.  —  Smaller in that it was cut to $787 billion from more than $800 billion in early versions in the House and Senate.