Senator Olympia Snowe's dwindling support reflects the growing influence of the Tea Party in the Maine GOP and her constituents' desire for a more conservative candidate.

The dynamics of the health care reform debate raise fascinating questions about the process, the parties, the institutions, and the norms inside Congress.

A Scott Brown victory would leave Democrats with three unappealing options to get their health reform plan enacted.

It is good that we will have some disclosure of the mega-donors to the spate of super PACs that have dominated the landscape and the airtime across the presidential primaries and caucuses so far — but it is ridiculous that reporting requirements are so lame that the first disclosure in six months will not come until after the Florida primary.

Democrats failure to listen to and negotiate with Senate moderates led to the Brown election and created a scenario in which substantial health reform is now effectively dead.

If I had my druthers, I would cut to the chase and go for the Healthy Americans Act, the brainchild of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that has substantial bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.

The satisfaction from the show of bipartisanship on the Eisen confirmation lasted a good five minutes.