Why the Senate Should Vote Yes on Health Care  —  IF I were still a United States senator, I would not only vote yes on the current health care reform bill, I would do so with the sure knowledge that I was casting one of the most historic votes of my 36 years in the Senate.

Stupak aims to sink ‘unacceptable’ abortion compromise  —  An aide to Rep. Bart Stupak (D. Mich.) coordinated opposition to the Senate health bill's abortion compromise this morning with the Republican Senate leadership according to a chain of frantic emails obtained this morning by POLITICO.

Show Us the E-Mail  —  WE end this extraordinary financial year with news that the Treasury is in discussions with American International Group about selling the taxpayers' 80 percent ownership stake in that company.  The government recently permitted several banks to break free …

Kristol: Ten Words To Remember  —  There are lots of embarrassing little things to mock in the Senate bill (e.g., the special provision for Nebraska), and lots of bad provisions to attack (the tax hikes and federal funding for abortion, to mention two).  But Republicans shouldn't lose sight …

Palin continues to blast climate change believers  —  (CNN)- In a late night posting on her Twitter feed, Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin continued to blast climate change believers Friday, calling the talks in Copenhagen, Denmark a representation of man's “arrogance,” for believing people have an impact on nature.

A Pyrrhic Victory?  —  Special editorial, December 19, 2009.  —  When a fellow conservative tried to cheer me up this morning by assuring me that the Senate Democrats' victory on health care was going to be a Pyrrhic one, I realized I didn't remember much about Pyrrhus.  —  I went of course to Wikipedia.

Still time to think small  —  This is a good bill.  Not a great bill, but a good bill.  Imagine telling a Democrat in the days after the 2004 election that the 2006 election would end Republican control of Congress, the 2008 election would return a Democrat to the White House …

Top Iranian dissident cleric Montazeri dies  —  One of Iran's most prominent dissident clerics, Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri, has died aged 87.  —  Hoseyn Ali Montazeri was a moving spirit in the 1979 revolution which created Iran's Islamic state, and was at one stage set to become its leader.

Sunday Morning Bobblehead Thread … This has been a really dispiriting time for many of us...and the likening of politicians and the bobbleheads to game show hosts is an apt one.  Trying to sell us on merchandise by wildly over-inflating its value, even though in reality, it's not something we really wanted in the first place.

Obama, Denied Full Victory on 2 Issues, Takes Validation  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, likes to say that the only thing that is not negotiable is success.  The last 48 hours offered a case study in how the president applies that maxim to governing.

Tiger Woods, Person of the Year  —  AS we say farewell to a dreadful year and decade, this much we can agree upon: The person of the year is not Ben Bernanke, no matter how insistently Time magazine tries to hype him into its pantheon.  The Fed chairman was just as big a schnook as every …

Senate Preparing for Cloture on Health Care  —  So there's now about a 90% chance that the health care bill will pass.  —  At this point, the thing is more than a little inexplicable.  Democrats are on a political suicide mission; I'm not a particularly accurate prognosticator …