ThinkProgress says at least 40 GOP lawmakers would be cut off financially if the RNC were ever to adopt the so called "purity test" that is being floated by a committee member:  
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There's been all this talk of needing 60 votes to pass health care reform in the Senate, but that isn't necessarily the case, as Byron Tau points out: 
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The NY Times has a helpful comparison of the House and Senate versions of health care reform here.
 
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Here's your chance to read the 2,074 page Senate health care bill. It's posted on Majority Leader Harry Reid's website here. Let me know how much of it you get through, or if you find something interesting or disturbing within.
 
And, if you don't have that much time on your hands, you can peruse the Congressional Budget Office's take on it (a mere 36 pages).  read more »

Nebraska moderate Democrat Ben Nelson's office just shot out a press release describing what a vote to proceed to debating the Senate health care bill is AND is not. Highlight: 
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The investigative arm of Congress is meeting opposition from some executive branch agencies, like the State, Justice and Defense Departments. Jordy Yager provides an interesting glimpse of the struggles facing the Government Accountability Office this morning: 
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D.C. is saying goodbye to its most prominent GLBT newspaper, the Washington Blade. It had just turned 40 and was turning a small profit, but its parent company, Window Media, wasn't and was forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. From Paul Scwartzman: 
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In case you missed it, on Saturday Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) wrote an op-ed in the NY Times defending the end of life counseling provision, a.k.a. "death panels," he authored in the House health care bill: 
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The top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, shot Chairman Edolphus Towns a terse letter today. In it Issa accuses Towns' staff of misleading the minority about upcoming hearings on the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch bailouts:
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With a high profile climate bill, comes all the trappings you'd imagine: cash and influence. Amy Harder has a nice little break out and description of the Big Spenders on energy so far this year. It should come as no surprise that the U.S.  read more »