Ben Nelson

by Christi Parsons and Noam N. Levey President Obama is becoming more personally invested in rallying the public and Congress behind a healthcare overhaul, even as some Republicans raise the stakes in the debate by claiming that defeating his plan......

by David G. Savage and James Oliphant As the Senate begins debate Tuesday on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor with the outcome assured, the only remaining questions are whether the National Rifle Assn. can claim to have swayed votes against......

by Mark Silva The doctor is in: Howard Dean, former Democratic National Committee chairman, onetime candidate for his party's presidential nomination, former governor of Vermont - and a physician -- says there is nothing to Republican Sarah Palin's...

by Janet Hook The political challenge facing President Obama as he tries to pump new gas into his drive to revamp health care could be summed up in five words by Nobel prize winning economist Dan Kahneman: In the minds......

by Noam Levey and Janet Hook Despite months of outward ambivalence about creating a government health insurance plan, the Obama White House has launched a behind-the-scenes campaign to get divided Senate Democrats to take up some version of the idea......

by Mark Silva In the Senate, pet names usually are kept private. But Sen. Claire McCaskill, a decidedly more conservative Democrat from Missouri, has a name for herself in conversations with Sen. Dick Durbin, the considerably more liberal Democrat from......

by Mark Silva Republicans, yes. Democrats, no. It's a volatile mix for a health-care overhaul that the White House is seeking. Alll eyes may be on the Senate Finance Committee today, but the outcome of the health-care overhaul in the......

by Mark Silva The House's health care bill, we were reminded, weighed in at over 20 pounds. The Senate's bill, we're told, is bigger than War and Peace. Both of them also offer health care for millions of Americans uninsured.......

by Michael Muskal The Senate began deliberations on its version of a healthcare overhaul today, with Democrats searching for a bill that will be supported by 60 senators. Returning from the Thanksgiving holiday, the Senate slowly began the debate on......

by Mark Silva and updated with president's statements. It's snowing so hard on Washington today that they are grounding all buses and surface trains. It's not going to stop anytime soon. There's already a foot of snow on the ground,......

by Mike Memoli One of the few uncertainties lingering before this evening's vote on Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court was how Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) would vote. The Bay State senator announced his decision a short time ago:......

by Frank James In the Senate, it nowadays apparently takes a self-appointed, biparitsan "gang" of senators to get past the partisan gridlock. For instance, there was the Gang of 14 group of senators who helped the Senate get beyond an......