Once again, the big news of the day is all about health care reform debate in the Senate. The Senate is debating and voting on amendments at a pace similar to that of over the weekend. As of this writing, there have been votes on two amendments today, but the Ben Nelson, R-Neb., amendment to restrict funding for abortions has not yet come up for a vote.

U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., whose House amendment is virtually identical to the Nelson says the amendment will likely fail in the Senate.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., has hit back at Democrats with a new argument. Thune says the Democrats are those who are fighting for the status quo according to Hotline On Call.

“Democrats want to spend $2.5 trillion but still leave 90 percent of Americans saddled with the same costly premium increases they can’t afford now. Only in Washington DC is that considered reform,” Thune said.

The bipartisan, “mavericky” Sen. John McCain, D-Ariz., is gone, the Los Angeles Times says.

“As the GOP has settled on a strategy of unremitting opposition to the Obama agenda, McCain has been front and center on the attack,” The Los Angeles Times wrote of the 2008 Republican presidential candidate.

A Rasmussen poll finds that a “Tea Party” political party would be more popular than the Republican Party. The question was as part of the Generic Ballot, which asks respondents if they would vote for a Democrat or Republican for Congress without using names.

Not surprisingly, much of the interest comes from Republicans and conservative independents.

Seventy percent of Republican voters have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement while only 7% offer an unfavorable view. Interestingly, 49 percent of Democrats have no opinion one way or the other.
Among unaffiliated voters, 43 percent have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party efforts while 20 percent say the opposite.

A Mason-Dixon poll in Nevada shows that incumbent Democrat Dina Titus is in a dead heat with former Nevada state Senator Joe Heck.

The poll, however, has a relatively high margin of error of plus or minus 6 percent.

The DNC wants to wait until February 2012 to begin the primaries and caucuses.