Katie Connolly

This morning, David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network posted a video of California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren being questioned at a public meeting about coverage of abortions in the health-care-reform legislation.

Robert Mackey, writing for the New York Times's Lede blog, has a really interesting take on Hillary Clinton's testy answer to a question posed by a young man at a Congolese town-hall meeting this week.

Eleanor Clift has escaped D.C.'s infamous August mugginess to unwind at an undisclosed beach. But like most political junkies, she couldn't help but start thinking about health reform.

The New York Times reported yesterday on the thousands of people lining up for a free health clinic in L.A. Many came for routine medical care, like breast exams, TB tests, and Pap smears.

In his biography of Hillary Clinton, A Woman in Charge, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carl Bernstein writes about the 1994 Reform Riders campaign, a nationwide bus tour designed to build support for President Clinton's health-care reform agenda.

In today's L.A. Times, Peter Wallsten writes about the challenges confronting Organizing for America (OFA), the grassroots network spawned out of Obama's campaign apparatus that is gearing up to combat opponents of health-care reform.

When the Senate breaks for recess this Friday, the Capitol will become an eerily quiet place. House members have already fled swampy D.C., along with many of their staffers.

Over the past couple of weeks the Obama administration has subtly but noticeably shifted its rhetoric on health-care reform. As poll numbers slid, Obama began to pepper his statements with references to health insurance reform.

More than seven months after Barack Obama took the oath of office, the long-awaited campaign book from Washington Post political writer Dan Balz and Pulitzer Prize winner Haynes Johnson hits bookstores tomorrow.

This evening President Obama is hosting Sgt. James Crowley and Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. at the White House for beers─postconflict beverages if you will.

Today's headlines are screaming with bad news for President Obama. Two significant polls─from The Wall Street Journal/NBC and The New York Times/CBS─show support for his health-care-reform plans slipping, alongside his general approval rating.

Lobbying expenditures have increased in the second quarter of this year, and health care lobbyists appear to be the ones raking in the dough, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

Fellow Newsweek-ette Sarah Ball, who writes our Popvox Blog, just alerted us to this amusing video. She writes, Update: The video has since been removed from YouTube, but you can still watch it here.

Poor Dick Durbin. The democratic whip presides over the party's largest majority in the Senate since the Carter administration. Yet on contentious issues, like health care, he has to threaten, flatter, and cajole to get the support he needs.

In an unexpected appearance in the White House briefing room this afternoon, President Obama casually mentioned that he might invite Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt.

Many moons ago I worked in a consulting firm. We worked against strict deadlines. Some days we just couldn't work fast enough. On those days we didn't get to go home at 8 p.m., have dinner with our loved ones, and get a good night's sleep.

With health-care reform dominating the airwaves this week, you'd be forgiven for not knowing that it is also National Poker Week. Dozens of dedicated players have descended on the Hill over the past few days to argue for the federal regulation of online poker.

Earlier this year former senator Tom Daschle looked set to be a pivotal player in the president's plans to reform health care. A passionate health-policy expert, Obama wanted Daschle front and center as health and human services secretary.

In the last two weeks, political commentators have expressed doubts over President Obama's time frame for health-care reform. Meanwhile, even some Democratic lawmakers appear to be getting cold feet.

Obama's much vaunted grassroots organizing will be tested over the next two weeks as it swings into action to support the President's health care agenda. Since the campaign, Obama's field operation has morphed into a group called "Organizing for America", which tries to capitalize on the formidable activism of Obama volunteers in last year's election.

The Senate today voted to reject a request for $1.75 billion to fund the F-22 fighter-jet program. This is a bright spot for the president amid a swirl of criticism over his health-care plans, rising jobless numbers, and falling poll numbers.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings this week will be remembered as a civilized affair. The fiery exchanges and dramatic grandstanding that have characterized past confirmations were all but absent.

I posted earlier this week about Sarah Palin's op-ed in the Washington Post, which I consider her first move in establishing a post-gubernatorial political presence.

Although there's some superserious work churning through the halls of power on Capitol Hill at the moment─confirming a Supreme Court justice, reinventing health care─there's also some summer fun in the works.

Gallup has released the results of a survey about potential GOP 2012 nominees, and it contains much good news for Mitt Romney fans. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, the former Massachusetts governor just beats out Sarah Palin in the preferred-nominee stakes (26%-21%), with Mike Huckabee coming in third (19%), followed by Newt Gingrich (14%).

Since announcing her resignation as governor of Alaska in an unexpected and jarring press conference two weeks ago, pundits have been pondering Sarah Palin's next step.

After a relatively uneventful first day of hearings, most court-watchers anticipate that Sonia Sotomayor will cruise smoothly to the Senate Floor and on to the bench.

You may have seen this rather misleading photo doing the rounds this morning. The photo appears to depict President Obama checking out the rear of 16-year-old Brazilian girl Mayora Taveres.

Governor Sarah Palin's shock resignation last week prompted yet another round of colorful punditry on the woeful state of the Republican Party. If Palin does seek the GOP nomination in 2012, not only will she have an exceedingly short political resume, but she won't have a public office from which it launch her campaign.

CQ Politics has a great tool that analyzes the voting patterns of members of Congress. Your Gaggler has just spent a few minutes perusing the records of senators--specifically the degree to which they support the president--and found some interesting results.