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.

Dec. 20: Axelrod, Dean, roundtable  —  David Axelrod, Howard Dean, Joe Scarborough, Markos Moulitsas, Ed Gillespie, Tavis Smiley  —  MR. DAVID GREGORY: This Sunday: The Democrats now appear to have the votes to pass sweeping healthcare reform in the Senate, and the president stands at the brink of a major legislative victory.

MARVEL AT THE ‘ARROGANCE’ AND ‘NAIVETE’.... CNN is telling me that Sarah Palin said something on Twitter. … Or, to translate into English, the former half-term governor believes it's “arrogant and naive” to think human activity is responsible for climate change, which she describes as “man overpowering nature.”

Dreading our future  —  I am a baby boomer, which is to say my life has coincided with turbulent and awesome times.  From the Cold War to Vietnam, from Watergate to Monicagate, through the horrors of 9/11 and the stunning lifestyle advances, my generation's era has been historic and exciting.

Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri  —  The head of the UN's climate change panel - Dr Rajendra Pachauri - is accused of making a fortune from his links with ‘carbon trading’ companies, Christopher Booker and Richard North write.

House Dems cool to Nelson compromise  —  Anti-abortion Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) doesn't like Sen. Ben Nelson's abortion compromise and promises to fight it.  Now pro-abortion rights Democrats are speaking out, too — they don't like it but stop short of saying they'll try to kill it.

A ‘STARTER HOME’.... There's a sizable chasm between the failed health care status quo and the progressive ideal.  This, at a minimum, contributes to the differences between progressive proponents of reform — the same proposal can be seen by the same ostensible allies as both an important step forward and a bitter disappointment.

Sunday showdown: The Senate's Demcare treachery  —  Sellout Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) got his Cash-for-Cloture Christmas present early: Special Medicaid expansion subsidies for his state ($45 million for starters over the next decade).  The budget-strapped governors of every other state in the union ought to be crying foul.

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 …

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.

Off to the Races  —  I've long believed there are two basic strategies for dealing with climate change — the “Earth Day” strategy and the “Earth Race” strategy.  This Copenhagen climate summit was based on the Earth Day strategy.  It was not very impressive.

The Republican Health Care Blunder  —  The United States is on the doorstep of comprehensive health care reform.  It's a staggering achievement, about which I'll have more to say later. but the under-appreciated thing that strikes me at the moment is that it never would have happened if the Republican Party had played its cards right.