Politics News

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., announced Saturday that he will vote for health care reform when it comes up for a cloture vote in the Senate early next week. As the 60th and final Democrat to signal that he will support the bill, Nelson's decision virtually assures passage of the Democrats' sweeping health care reform.

Sen. Joe Lieberman might be the most hated man in Washington right now, but he's not without his defenders. Some even say he's done President Obama a favor by insisting that the Senate health care reform bill include no public option.

Congress' Christmas present to President Barack Obama may not be health-care reform, but rather a helicopter he insists he doesn't need. The 2010 defense appropriations bill is expected to provide more than $100 million to continue work on the VH-71 -- the next Marine One -- even though it was officially terminated this spring.

A poster meant to encourage Latinos to participate in the 2010 Census is turning into a theological bone of contention, reported USA Today. The poster, which depicts Joseph and a pregnant Mary arriving in Bethlehem more than two millennia ago, has been called "blasphemous" by one Latino cleric.

The Democratic-controlled Senate on Saturday cleared away a Republican filibuster of a huge end-of-year spending bill that rewards most federal agencies with generous budget boosts.

As negotiators grapple in Copenhagen over how to curtail carbon emissions, Europe's own system turns out to be an ATM for organized crime. According to officials, criminals have gamed the EU's Emissions Trading System for a cool $7.4 billion in purloined tax revenues over the last 18 months.