How many seats can Republicans pick up in the fall?....

Stung by the loss of a Senate supermajority, President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress searched for a way to salvage the health care overhaul, looking toward scaling down the bill or passing part of it through a complicated procedural process that can't be filibustered.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he didn't know how Democrats would proceed but, echoing Mr. Obama, ruled out ramming the measure through the chamber before seating Sen.-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts, whose surprise victory on Tuesday sent shock waves across Capitol Hill and provided Republicans newfound leverage in Congress.

Mr. Obama insisted that health care reform isn't dead, despite rumblings from a handful of Democrats on Capitol Hill anxious about the anger among Massachusetts' typically solid-blue voters...

Washington (AP) - With congressional negotiators starting to make decisions on a final health overhaul bill, top Democrats are hoping a White House session with President Barack Obama will narrow differences between the House and Senate.

Obama was to meet Wednesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Democratic leaders to discuss the massive legislation.

Negotiators from the White House and the two chambers have begun closed-door meetings already and seem likely to abandon a House-approved surtax on the wealthy even as they consider extending the Medicare payroll tax to investment income of high earners, Democratic officials said...

A conservative media analyst says the mainstream media will once again be demonstrating its bias if it quickly ends its coverage of Harry Reid's controversial race remarks like the White House wants.

The new book 'Game Change' recounts how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) in 2008 described then presidential candidate Barack Obama as a "light-skinned" black American with "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

Reid issued a statement Saturday, saying: "I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words. I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African-Americans, for my improper comments."

Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the Media Research Center, says when it comes to race, if a Republican had said the same thing Reid did, there would have been a different tone to the press coverage than what people are currently hearing.

WASHINGTON – A double standard? Republicans seeking Sen. Harry Reid's resignation as majority leader over racial remarks he made about Barack Obama say yes — that Reid should be held to the same standard as former GOP Sen. Trent Lott, whose own racial gaffes cost him the Senate leadership in 2002.

Democrats say no, that Reid's comments — while unfortunate — were nothing like Lott's.

Reid apologized to Obama and a handful of black political leaders after a new book reported that he was favorably impressed by Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign and, in a private conversation, described the Illinois senator as a "light-skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one"...

More than half of Nevadans are unhappy with Sen. Harry Reid, according to a new poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It's the worst "unfavorable" rating he's received in the newspaper's surveys for this year's election, and it comes amid quiet speculation -- or perhaps wishful thinking by his opponents -- that it's time for the Nevada Democrat to retire rather than lose re-election.

In response, Reid told the Review-Journal Friday he wouldn't consider stepping aside as did Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, whose announcement this week prompted rumors that the Senate majority leader might think about ending his political career now that he's the most vulnerable incumbent.

"I am absolutely running for re-election," said Reid, 70, in a statement. "These are difficult times for Nevada and as the majority leader of the Senate I have been able to take action to address those challenges.

A legal scholar says the Senate healthcare bill is not only stuffed full of racial quotas and preferences, but it also gives the disgraced liberal activist group ACORN opportunities to receive funding from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Harry Reid's (D-Nevada) "manager's amendment" in the Senate healthcare bill requires that six federal agencies each establish an "Office of Minority Health." Under that requirement, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is supposed to award grants and contracts to organizations that are "indigenous human resource providers in communities of color" and engage in "community outreach activities" -- the type of work ACORN says it has been doing for years.

Hans von SpakovskyHans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, says scandal-plagued ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now -- is exactly the kind of organization that will be applying for and receiving these federal funds...

The Senate is trudging forward on its way toward a Christmas Eve vote on health care reform, reconvening Monday afternoon following a key test vote in the early morning hours.

President Obama is expected to speak Monday about the squeaker vote held shortly after midnight. Health care reform is the president's most critical domestic agenda item and he has spent most of his political capital in his first year in office on that issue.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was able to hold together all 58 Democrats and two independents to overcome unanimous GOP opposition in a 60-40 vote, after winning over the last known holdout, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. Sixty votes was the minimum amount needed to move the bill forward...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Harry Reid's Democratic caucus in the Senate may be unraveling even further than the abortion fight he is having with pro-life Sen. Ben Nelson. Other senators are voicing their concerns about various unrelated provisions of the pro-abortion, government health care bill.

The potential opposition is important because, to get the pro-abortion health care bill approved in the Senate this year, Reid needs commitments by Saturday evening.

"If we are going to get a bill out of the Senate, which will be very close to getting a bill enacted, we have to do it in 2009," Sen. Bob Casey said yesterday, according to Politico. "Some might not think so, but what I would worry about is losing momentum." "We're down to 48 to 72 hours," he said...

WASHINGTON -- It's one of the oldest spectator sports in American politics: Democrat vs. Democrat. Welcome to the health care overhaul edition.

With just days remaining to prove that they can meet a self-imposed Christmas deadline and pass President Barack Obama's signature initiative through the Senate, Democrats seeking a rendezvous with history instead detoured to an intraparty brawl.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was poised to release the latest version of the Senate legislation as early as Friday, but it was unclear what kind of reception he'd get. Labor leaders said the bill was soft on the insurance industry, and former party chairman Howard Dean said he'd vote against it if he were a senator...