All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

** Gearing up for a long health care Senate debate...

** Stimulus tracking comes under fire...

** Republican governors focus on economic issues...

HEALTH CARE: "The Senate Thursday began what promises to be a bitter, lengthy battle over the future of health care in America, and taxes, abortion, affordability and federal deficits emerged as key flashpoints," reports McClatchy Newspapers' David Lightman.

"Senate Democratic leaders expect the first test vote on their new $848 billion, 2,074-page health care overhaul bill will come on Saturday evening. Although Democrats are likely to get the 60 votes they need to move forward with the debate, the outcome is uncertain.

"Should the measure pass that initial test, lawmakers made it clear Thursday that they're ready for weeks of political warfare.

"Democrats framed their mission in heroic terms.

"'This is about the woman with high cholesterol, or the man with heart disease, or the child with hay fever who can't get help,' said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. 'That's why we're stopping insurance companies from deciding they'd simply rather not give health care to the sick.'”

"The first test for the bill, which would extend coverage to 31 million more Americans while reducing federal deficits by $130 billion over the next decade, will come Saturday evening," write the Washington Post's Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray. "That is when Democratic leaders hope to keep together all 60 of their caucus members to turn back Republican procedural objections. Reid's efforts are focused on three moderate Democrats who oppose various provisions in the measure and have not declared whether they will support efforts to advance it.

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Recently released breast cancer screening recommendations represent a "step backward" for women's health care and the "slippery slope" health care could take under Democrats' proposed policies, a group of Republican congresswomen said today.

Meanwhile, in response to the concern surrounding the new recommendations, the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress insisted the recommendations will not be used to set policy and criticized Republicans for their "political gamesmanship" on the issue.

"This is how rationing begins. This is the little toe in the edge of the water," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) at a press conference on Capitol Hill. "This is when you start getting a bureaucrat between you and your physician. This is what we have warned about."

(The above photograph shows, from left to right, Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) and Blackburn.)

At issue are the new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which concluded that it is not worth it for women to perform breast self-exams or to get routine mammograms before reaching the age of 50. The task force is an independent group of 16 experts put together by the Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a statement earlier today that said the task force is only putting forward new information and does not set policy or determine what services the government covers. She also said she would be very surprised if any private insurance companies changed their mammography policies because of the recommendations.

Still, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) said today that she feared health insurance companies would change their policies. Furthermore, she said, she feared that such studies would be used to set policy in the national health insurance exchange that would be set up and run by HHS if Democrats are able to pass their health care bill.

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Before Sarah Palin's highly-anticipated book, "Going Rogue," goes on sale this week, it has already generated controversy, skepticism and blowback.

"This is Sarah Palin's turn to get even, as it were," said CBS News chief Washington correspondent and host of "Face the Nation" Bob Schieffer.

"She came under this intense criticism all during the campaign and now she's giving her version of why she didn't succeed as a candidate."

But Schieffer, speaking on "The Early Show" Monday, said he does not think her strategy will work. "It's kind of like a baseball player going into a slump and blaming the manager or blaming the bat boy or blaming the fans or something. You know, it makes for provocative reading, I think she'll sell a lot of books, but I don't think it's going to help re-establish her as a political candidate."

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Updated at 10:45 a.m. ET with reaction from RNC Chair Michael Steele.

The Republican National Committee offers its employees insurance coverage for elective abortions, the Politico reports. That’s a seeming contradiction to the party platform and the GOP’s current position on an abortion amendment added to the House health care bill.

The GOP platform calls elective abortion "a fundamental assault on innocent human life," according to Politico.

RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho reportedly said the policy has been in effect since 1991, long before current RNC Chairman Michael Steele assumed his leadership role. Upon learning of the coverage in their insurance plan, Steele instructed the RNC to opt out of any coverage for elective abortion services.

"Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose," Steele said in a statement. "I don't know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled."

Originally, the RNC chose not to opt out of abortion coverage, Cigna representatives told Politico.

Almost every single Republican in the House of Representatives voted in favor of an amendment to the Democrats' health care bill, offered by Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joe Pitts (R-Penn.), that explicitly prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for plans that cover abortion. It also effectively limits private insurers from being able to offer abortion coverage within the proposed national health insurance exchange. The amendment passed with some Democratic support.

The only Republican who bucked the party and voted "present" on the amendment did so in an attempt to foil the overall health care bill's chances of passage.

"We believe in the sanctity of life, and the Stupak-Pitts Amendment addresses a moral issue of the utmost concern," House GOP leaders John Boehner (R-Ohio), Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said in a statement after the vote. "It will limit abortion in the United States. Because of this, while we strongly and deeply oppose the underlying bill, we decided to stand with Life and support Stupak-Pitts."

Republican South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who was formally censured by members of his own party earlier this week for playing nice with Democrats on climate change and other legislation, has spoken out in his own defense, according to Capitol Hill's newspaper Roll Call.

The Charleston, South Carolina Post and Courier reported that the Charleston County Republican Party voted on Monday to censure Graham for not upholding the Republican platform. The group cited his cooperation with Democratic senator John Kerry on the proposed cap-and-trade bill and his support for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, Obama's $700 billion bailout plan.

"U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham -- in the name of bipartisanship -- continues to weaken the Republican brand and tarnish the ideals of freedom, rule of law, and fiscal conservatism," the resolution reportedly reads.

"There have been a lot of things over the years that people have been dissatisfied with the senator for doing but I think the cap-and-trade issue is the straw that broke the camel's back," Lin Bennett, the county GOP chairwoman, said according to the South Carolina State. "We have a state platform that if you want to run as a Republican in our state part of that platform includes ideals and goals we would like to see and one of them is smaller, and less government intrusion into people's lives."

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The "Tea Party" is now an official political party in Florida.

An Orlando lawyer named Frederic O'Neal has registered the Tea Party with the office of the Florida Secretary of State, Politico reports, and intends to run candidates against both Republicans and Democrats in state and national races.

"The current system has become mired in the sludge of special interest money that seeks to control the leadership of both parties. It's time for real change," O'Neal reportedly said in a press release.

One of Florida's most prominent Republicans, Gov. Charlie Crist, already faces a conservative challenger in his bid to become the GOP's 2010 Senate nominee. Conservative Marco Rubio is gaining credibility among the state's conservatives, and has won the endorsement of the anti-tax, pro-limited government Club For Growth.

The split among conservatives and moderates in the Florida GOP is part of a larger debate within the party about the future of its identity.

O'Neal, the new chair of the Tea Party in Florida, reportedly compared his party to the Conservative Party in New York's 23rd District -- another example of the GOP's moderate-conservative fissure. In a special election to represent New York's 23rd congressional district, Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman drove out the local Republican Party candidate, Dede Scozzafava. The district is Republican-leaning, but the Democratic candidate ultimately prevailed over the Conservative in last Tuesday's election.

Even though the conservative lost in that race, "tea partiers" and other conservatives "remain convinced they're on the right side of history," CBSNews.com's Charles Cooper wrote. "And in writing down their morning-after election analyses... they also delivered a hard-edged message to the Republican establishment: Get behind us or get out of the way."

The Tea Party has been registered with the state since August and is one of 32 minor political parties certified in Florida, Politico reported.

With the 2009 elections proving to be fruitful for the Republican party but less so for its conservative wing, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) is once again in the spotlight as a representative of the GOP's moderate branch.

Snowe has earned considerable attention over the course of the year for her willingness to work with Democrats on health care reform -- something that has made her an exception in her party. As the GOP considers how it will define itself in the coming years, prominent Republicans like Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty are debating whether or not Snowe represents the right direction for their party.

On MSNBC this morning, Steele said Snowe was welcome in the GOP.

"Each member of this party has a unique footprint," he said. "And it's different from region to region. I can't win in the Northeast with a candidate best suited for the South and vice-versa."

As Politico points out Steele's comments diverge from an earlier statement he made indicating he would be open to supporting challengers to moderates like Snowe.

Earlier in the week, Pawlenty, a potential presidential hopeful for the Republicans, suggested Snowe may not be conservative enough for the Republican party.

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

** Republicans win by focusing on fiscal and pocketbook issues...

** What it all means for Team Obama...

** Senate Democrats push back their health care deadlines...

ELECTION 2009: A year to the day after the Democrats' historic election and one day after wins by Republicans Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell in New Jersey and Virginia's governor's races last night, Democrats are waking up with headaches while Republicans' glee seems uncontrollable. But both parties have serious lessons to learn as they move towards next year's midterms.

Lesson 1: To avoid proving the theory that 2008 was an election solely about Obama and not a Democratic movement, they must figure out a way to avoid last night's lackadaisical effort from the voters that came out in record numbers for President Obama . Young voters were virtually not a factor; their share of the electorate was down 50 percent from last year in both New Jersey and Virginia. Plus, African-American turnout in Virginia was down 4 percent. Yes, this could be saying something about the quality of this year's Democratic candidates but it also is just as likely it's a reflection of the fact that Mr. Obama wasn't on the ballot. Problem is: he won't be on the ballot next year either.

Lesson 2: After the Republicans come off their Cloud Nine, they have a major issue to resolve within their own party: in what direction is the GOP going? The McDonnell and Christie victories are textbook examples of how Republicans can win in places where they're not necessarily expected to win. And they did it by attracting large numbers of independents and by focusing on fiscal and pocketbook issues, not social issues.

However, social conservatives are still fired up over their derailing of the moderate (they say liberal) candidate in New York's 23rd Congressional District and are threatening to move the party far right. Great for them, however, their chosen candidate in NY-23, Doug Hoffman lost in that moderate district last night, a district held by Republicans for over a century.

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Election wins in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races show the GOP has "found its voice again," the Republican party's chairman said Wednesday.

During an appearance on CBS' "The Early Show", Michael Steele touted the victories of New Jersey's Chris Christie and Virginia's Bob McDonell as a "bellwether for the party."

Steele said the wins, in two states carried by President Barack Obama last fall, recast the GOP as a "transcendent party."

"The conservative message resonated, but it was translated in a way that people felt embraced by it at the polls," Steele said.

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As the House of Representatives prepares to take up debate on the Democrats' massive health care overhaul, Republicans are preparing Internet-based efforts to present a united front against the bill.

The bill, Republican leaders say, is bloated with questionable provisions that few citizens -- or legislators -- have had a chance to debate. Now, they intend to pick apart those provisions online.

"All you need to know is there are 1,990 pages," Republican House leader John Boehner said of the health care measure. "That should tell you everything." Boehner presented in an op-ed ways to make the legislative process more transparent, commenting that it is typical for "massive bills [to be] unveiled in the dark of night and rushed to a vote before anyone in America could possibly know the details."

To prove to voters they intend to dissect those details, House Republicans will gather in a congressional reading room this afternoon to pour through the bill -- and will invite citizens to join them online. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) is Webcasting the reading, which is taking place from 2 to 6 p.m. this afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Republican caucus is using the social networking site Amplify to highlight portions of the bill with which they take issue. On their page healthcaretruth.amplify.com, Republican users share the actual text of the bill up for discussion and leave a comment. Other users can leave their own comments or share the content using Twitter, Facebook, Digg and other social networking tools.

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