Health deal sparks fury on the left  —  A House leadership deal with Blue Dogs and an aggressive marketing push by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) shifted the healthcare debate sharply toward centrist positions Wednesday, sparking threats of rebellion from the left.

How nervous should those Blue Dogs be?  —  OK, as promised the other day, I've run some numbers about the Democratic Blue Dogs in the House of Representatives, and they're quite interesting.  Here's the deal.  This is a long post, but it's got lots of actual new information, and no difficult-to-discern irony.

Officer suspended for Gates slur in e-mail  —  An officer in the Boston Police Department was suspended yesterday for allegedly writing a racially charged e-mail about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to colleagues at the National Guard, a law enforcement official said.

New Poll Finds Growing Unease on Health Plan  —  President Obama's ability to shape the debate on health care appears to be eroding as opponents aggressively portray his overhaul plan as a government takeover that could limit Americans' ability to choose their doctors and course of treatment …