Say, have you noticed how often Chuck Schumer has been nuzzling up to Lindsey “Huckleberry” Graham lately?

The stories being published about Tea Party member Mike Troxel’s troll fail have defused brewing intimidation. The stories also reveal many things about Tea Party members, some of which aren’t very pretty.

Arkansas’ Lt. Governor and Senatorial candidate Bill Halter has seized on Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s opposition to the budget reconciliation, particularly to the piece of it that would reform the student loan industry.

On Friday, former militia leader Mike Vanderboegh called for anti-Democratic vandalism across the country to protest the health care bill. There were attacks in–at least–Wichita, KS, Tucson, AZ, Rochester, NY, Niagara Falls, NY which appeared to respond to Vanderboegh’s call and for which he has proudly claimed credit.

Compare and contrast the approaches of Tzipi Livni and Benjamin Netanyahu. You can see how counterproductive it is to lay out objections to final status negotiations and then call on the other fellow to make the first move.

No, this isn’t an Onion headline. Yes, it is yet another poll that shows Republicans are out of their fucking minds.

I was on the premiere of John King USA on CNN last night, talking about the primary problems Michael Bennet now faces as he moves away from his commitment made only a month ago to an up-or-down vote on the public option in the Senate.

Romanoff issued a challenge to Bennet last Friday to honor his commitment, saying “where’s the ‘public option’ champion?” Colorado columnist and radio host David Sirota added fuel to the fire, asserting that “thanks to Romanoff’s demand, [Bennet] will have to put up or shut up. If he refuses to offer the amendment, he shows his past efforts to be kabuki theater — grandstanding for attention while refusing to actually take the steps necessary to do what he publicly claims he wants to do.”

At this hour, the President will sign the health care legislation in the East Room of the White House.

The President will sign the health care legislation at an 11am ceremony. After that, Senate work will begin on the reconciliation sidecar, and last night, the Senate’s parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, delivered a victory that shut down efforts to throw out or delay the bill.

This reconciliation bill might be the last chance for Democrats to deal with looming, politically damaging problems caused by the inclusion of an individual mandate, enforced by the IRS, which forces people to buy private insurance. Reconciliation could be used to strip the individual mandate out of the new law, or it can be used to add a public alternative, which makes the individual mandate significantly less unpopular. Foolish Democrats in the Senate seem dead set against dealing with what will likely be a toxic issue for them in November.