Senate Health Care Vote  —  There are a couple of aspects of this historic vote that deserve notice here:  —  1. My favorite provision requires that all members of Congress give up their federally-funded health care benefits and join the health care exchanges that will be set up by this bill.

Where conservatives have it wrong  —  YOU'RE A sensible, principled conservative.  You want America to be a land of boundless opportunity and freedom, where people are treated as individuals and judged on their merits.  You reject the divisive identity politics of the left …

What if a Recovery Is All in Your Head?  —  Beyond fiscal stimulus and government bailouts, the economic recovery that appears under way may be based on little more than self-fulfilling prophecy.  —  Consider this possibility: after all these months, people start to think it's time for the recession to end.

‘Purity’ may cost the GOP  —  The N.C. Republican Party has been channeling its inner Jesse Helms lately, and not just because a portrait of the late conservative icon was unveiled last week.  —  At a GOP banquet Saturday night in North Raleigh, one of the main speakers was to have been Doug Hoffman …

SNL: Obama & Jintao Press Conference in Beijing (VIDEO)  —  SNL apparently has no problem mocking Oba-mao.  This was probably one of their funniest parodies to date.  —  LOL @ Obama still.

Copenhagen will fail - and quite right too  —  Even if the science was reliable (which it isn't), we should not force the world's poorest countries to cut carbon emissions  —  Exactly a fortnight from today, the United Nations climate change conference opens in Copenhagen.

Freshman Dem: Passing health care reform worth losing my seat  —  Washington (CNN) - A freshman Democratic senator said Sunday that he will support his party's efforts to pass health care reform legislation even if that means losing his seat in next year's midterm elections.

Kennedy: Barred from Communion  —  WASHINGTON — Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin has forbidden Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy to receive the Roman Catholic sacrament of Holy Communion because of his advocacy of abortion rights, the Rhode Island Democrat said Friday.

The Sunday Shows In Five Bullet Points... And Glenn Beck!  —  1. A Senate of Four (Landreiu, Lieberman, Lincoln, Nelson): Well, there's Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT).  He says that the bill will change — and significantly.  Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) says that he'd vote to prevent …

Coakley leads, but electorate unsettled  —  In Globe poll, 50 percent remain undecided; Capuano running 2d, but far behind AG  —  Attorney General Martha Coakley has a solid lead in the four-way Democratic race for the open US Senate seat, but with just 16 days until the primary election …

Sweeteners for the South  —  Staffers on Capitol Hill were calling it the Louisiana Purchase.  —  On the eve of Saturday's showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn't secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive.

Visceral Has Its Value  —  It's easy to dismiss Sarah Palin.  —  She's back on the trail, with the tumbling hair and tumbling thoughts.  The queen of the scenic strip mall known as Wasilla now reigns over thrilled subjects thronging to a politically strategic swath of American strip malls.

Revisiting a Fed Waltz With A.I.G.  —  A RAY of sunlight broke through the Washington fog last week when Neil M. Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, published his office's report on the government bailout last year of the American International Group.