Democrats Focus on G.O.P. Senators From Maine  —  WASHINGTON — Anxious that Saturday's party-line Senate vote to open debate on a health care overhaul gives them little maneuvering room, Obama administration officials and their Congressional allies are stepping up overtures to select Senate Republicans …

Patient trapped in a 23-year ‘coma’ was conscious all along  —  A man thought by doctors to be in a vegetative state for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time, it was revealed last night.  —  Student Rom Houben was misdiagnosed after a car crash left him totally paralysed.

They Chose Celebrity  —  Before the 2008 election, almost nobody outside Alaska and Arkansas had heard of Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee.  But in a long and crowded campaign season, they were the only Republican politicians who inspired any genuine enthusiasm.  —  They had other things in common as well.

Wave of Debt Payments Facing U.S. Government  —  WASHINGTON — The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.'s on terms that seem too good to be true.  —  But that happy situation, aided by ultralow interest rates, may not last much longer.

Microsoft and News Corp eye web pact  —  By Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles, Richard Waters in San Francisco and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York  —  Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company's being paid to “de-index” …

Copenhagen will fail - and quite right too  —  Even if the science was reliable (which it isn't), we should not force the world's poorest countries to cut carbon emissions  —  Exactly a fortnight from today, the United Nations climate change conference opens in Copenhagen.

The Phantom Menace  —  A funny thing happened on the way to a new New Deal.  A year ago, the only thing we had to fear was fear itself; today, the reigning doctrine in Washington appears to be “Be afraid.  Be very afraid.”  —  What happened?  To be sure, “centrists” in the Senate have hobbled efforts to rescue the economy.

Lawyer: 9/11 Defendants Will Tell Jury ‘Why They Did It’  —  NEW YORK — The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday.

‘Purity’ may cost the GOP  —  The N.C. Republican Party has been channeling its inner Jesse Helms lately, and not just because a portrait of the late conservative icon was unveiled last week.  —  At a GOP banquet Saturday night in North Raleigh, one of the main speakers was to have been Doug Hoffman …

The White House's climate conundrum  —  Health care reform remains the focal point of legislative policymaking in Washington.  And that may not change for a while.  Nobody thought the current debate would be easy or fast.  But everyone agrees it has extracted nearly all the oxygen out of the Capitol and taken longer than expected.

Forecast for Dem. primaries: Ugly  —  Republicans aren't the only ones staring at the unnerving prospect of a 2010 primary season filled with smash-mouth intraparty contests that threaten to distract the party and leave Senate nominees bloodied and cash-depleted.

Chris Matthews Shocker: Obama Making ‘Carteresque’ Mistakes  —  Chris Matthews appears to have lost that loving feeling for Barack Obama.  —  On “The Chris Matthews Show” Sunday, the once smitten MSNBCer called some of Obama's recent mistakes “Carteresque”:

What if a Recovery Is All in Your Head?  —  Beyond fiscal stimulus and government bailouts, the economic recovery that appears under way may be based on little more than self-fulfilling prophecy.  —  Consider this possibility: after all these months, people start to think it's time for the recession to end.

Durbin open to changing public option to pass health care bill  —  Washington (CNN) - The Senate's second-ranking Democrat said Sunday he was open to changing the government-run public health insurance option in the chamber's health care bill to ensure that the measure passes.