GOP plots Senate health roadblock  —  Democrats might like to think that health care reform is all but a done deal if it clears the House, but the Senate is where Republicans have been plotting for months to sentence it to a painful procedural death.  —  Republican aides have been mining …

Stupak: Health fight has been ‘living hell’  —  Leading a revolt against President Barack Obama's healthcare legislation over abortion has been a “living hell” for Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.).  —  The telephone lines in his Washington and district offices have been “jammed” …

Obama's pitch: Fate of presidency on the line  —  President Barack Obama had exhausted most of his health care reform arguments with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during a White House meeting last Thursday when he made a more personal pitch that resonated with many skeptics in the room.

President Barack Obama Talks to Bret Baier About Health Care Reform Bill  —  This is a rush transcript of “Special Report With Bret Baier” from March 17, 2010.  This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.  —  BRET BAIER, “SPECIAL REPORT” HOST: Welcome to Washington.

Rules Panel Dem To Vote Against Bill  —  A key House Dem has begun informing party leaders he plans to vote against health care legislation both on the House floor and in the rules committee, on which he sits.  —  Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-NY), a sophomore Dem who had a tougher …

Don't Be Morose!  Get Even!  —  David Brooks says he's out on the ledge, morose, and about to have a “Howard Beale” moment.  Just last week he was telling us that Obama was a misunderstood moderate.  Now he confesses that Obama is aiding and abetting unlawfulness of the worst kind.  He explains:

Has Rahm's assumption about progressives been vindicated?  —  Politico's Ben Smith yesterday suggested that one important aspect of Rahm Emanuel's health care strategy — to ignore the demands of progressives on the ground that they would fall into line at the end no matter what — has been vindicated.

Steve Levy Plans Switch to G.O.P., Stirring Governor's Race  —  ALBANY — A governor's race that seemed all but settled is about to be upended again, by a popular Democrat from Long Island who is set to announce that he is switching parties.  The move is certain to excite Republican leaders pessimistic …

I-Team: DOJ Serves Subpoenas in Senator Ensign Investigation  —  LAS VEGAS — Nevada Senator John Ensign is in the crosshairs of a Department of Justice criminal investigation.  —  The criminal probe stems from a romantic affair Ensign had with the wife of his key staffer and close friend …

He Took My Lunch Money, Or, Why Women Need Full Health Care  —  Once more, with feeling ...  I'm not the only woman in the country who once had a partner who took my paychecks and deposited them in an account that I had no access to; not by debit card, not by checkbook.

GOP Doc Asks Pelosi: ‘Are you so arrogant ... ignorant ... incompetent?’  —  ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports: Democrats might have themselves a health reform bill, but Republicans have doctors - way more doctors in Congress, anyway, than Democrats.  And they're steamed.

Savage Love  —  (662) 862-3104 by Dan Savage My husband and I have been married for one year, but we had been dating for 10 years prior to that.  I thought we had a very understanding relationship.  In the last couple of days, I have found out that he has a serious obsession with females wearing running shoes.

Access, Access, Access  —  First, a question: When in American history did life expectancy improve the most?  —  Was it the late 1800s, when anesthesia made surgery easier and far more common?  Was it the 1930s, when antibacterial medicines became available?  Or recent decades, when CAT scans and heart bypasses proliferated?

Lynch mobbed  —  Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) is a firm “no” on health care reform — in large measure because he opposes the idea of any kind of excise tax on Cadillac plans, even one that's delayed for years and years.  —  That's put Lynch a former ironworkers union official in Boston …

Field Poll: Campbell leads GOP Senate field; Boxer fades  —  WASHINGTON - Former Rep. Tom Campbell has a six-point lead over his closest challenger in the three-way Republican primary to face Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, whose popularity has significantly eroded in the past two months, according to a Field Poll released today.

The 2012 Poll  —  For the third month in a row our look ahead to the 2012 Presidential race makes it clear that a race between Barack Obama and either Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney would be a tossup at this point in time.  —  Obama and Romney tie at 44% each.

Alex Chilton, Rock Musician, Dies  —  Alex Chilton of the rock band Big Star performed at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple last November.  —  10:48 a.m., March 18 |  Updated Alex Chilton, the mercurial if influential rock musician, whose work spanned an eclectic gamut from the soul songs …

Madoff Was Beaten in Prison  —  Ponzi Schemer Was Assaulted by Another Inmate in December; Officials Deny Incident  —  The Butner federal prison in July.  A man who served time with Bernard Madoff there says the financier gave him investment advice.  —  Bernard Madoff, who is serving …

Texts Without Context  —  In his deliberately provocative — and deeply nihilistic — new book, “Reality Hunger,” the onetime novelist David Shields asserts that fiction “has never seemed less central to the culture's sense of itself.”  He says he's “bored by out-and-out fabrication …