All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

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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Even though the health care bill released by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has been met with skepticism, the senator said today that he believes his bill can pass the Senate with both Republican and Democratic support.

"I fully believe at the end of the day there's going to be Republican support for this bill," he said.

The Congress will get a health care bill to the president's desk by the end of this year because, Baucus said in a press conference, it has a moral obligation to do so, giving the issue "a certain sense of inevitability."

"This is our moment in history," he said. "We cannot let this opportunity pass."

Baucus said his bill meets all of President Obama's criteria for health care reform; he said it provides security and stability for those with insurance, expands coverage to those who do not, slows the growth of health care costs, and "keeps insurance companies honest" by providing competition. It also stays within the president's preferred price range of $900 billion over 10 years, reduces the deficit over 10 years and controls long term spending, he said.

"We have done everything imaginable to get the most generous, most affordable coverage that we could within President Obama's target," Baucus said.

The senator's bill has been attacked from the left for not doing enough to make health care coverage accessible and affordable. Baucus acknowledged the complaints from both sides of the aisle and said a "bipartisan" approach is more durable and better policy.

"I believe I have an obligation to work as diligently and as hard as I can to try to get the most broad-based bill possible," he said.

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While Senate Democrats and some journalists have called the Senate's agreement on a difficult economic stimulus bill as "bipartisan," John McCain thinks it is anything but.

And in a tone reminiscent of the 2008 presidential election, McCain criticized the Obama administration and Democrats on the negotiations surrounding the nearly $1 trillion economic package. "In the interest of full disclosure, that's the way the Bush administration [operated] when we Republicans were in charge. That's the way we did business, but I thought we were going to have change."

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President Obama will have four senators and 11 House members over to the White House for a Super Bowl party Sunday.

It's worth saying up front that sometimes a Super Bowl party is just a Super Bowl party.

Still, the White House provided the list of attendees to reporters and Obama aides (including Bill Burton who ) seem to be talking up the affair as another gesture of cross-party outreach. (A rundown of past efforts is here.) So here's a quick rundown of who's coming by for the big game.

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