As anyone on the Twitter knows, health care reform passed the House tonight, albeit with a terrible last-minute abortion amendment supported by 64 Democrats desperately in need of a primary challenge. MetaFilter's "welcome to the mid-twentieth century" snark aside, it's a pretty good day to be a Democrat. 218 to pass + 1 for good measure + 1 surprise Republican vote; if Harry Reid does his job half as well as Pelosi we're in good shape.

What's bringing a 'smile' to my face today? Impotent whining.



Some good analysis of what's been going on with this committee here.

A functional health care system in our time? Ezra Klein and Steve Benen talk about the ways in which the coming House vote on health care—now, apparently, back on—could be a "gamechanger."

It's easy to forget that this process is quite a bit closer to completion than health-care reform has ever been. Two committees in the House and one in the Senate have already voted out legislation. That's never happened before. But if a bill actually passes the House, that will be a gamechanger.

After all, that has never happened before. In 1994, Bill Clinton's plan didn't survive long enough to see a vote. Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Harry Truman weren't any luckier. Obama is likely to not only see a vote in the House, but win it. And that gives him more than just bragging rights. It will put tremendous pressure on the Senate to follow suit.

You have to earn it: 'Senate Democrats Deny Specter Committee Seniority.' Not sure if Specter's latest flub had any role in this, but it's safe to say that Arlen's not impressing.

A little-known provision in the Congressional Review Act of 1996 will allow the Democratic Congress to painlessly undo any and all Bush regulations from the last six months of his presidency, including those that have already taken effect—something the White House's strategy of last-minute malfeasance seems to have failed to take into account. The news just keeps getting better. Via MeFi.

Quick links for Tuesday morning:

* Can't stand waiting to see how Super Duper Tuesday will turn out? poblano at Daily Kos has a huge diary that tries to crunch the numbers. I can't say that there's much truth to any of it, but for my part I found the numbers encouraging—Obama already has significantly more strength in Super Tuesday states than I thought he did, and his prospects for a big bump after winning both South Carolina and Nevada are quite good. (By the way, the bogus Michigan primary is today. Go Uncommitted!)

* Peter Saunders argues in Policy capitalism is good. Marxists, Leftists, environmentalists, and rabble-rousers of all stripes, be advised.

* I'm definitely tucking this awesome Flickr photo away for future use. For now, it'll have to serve as this week's blog icon—I forgot to change it yesterday because of the semester changeover.

Elsewhere in what I misleadingly call the news:

* A somewhat surprising comparison of the achievements of the 2007 "New Direction" Democratic congress and the 1995 "Contract with America" Republican congress, at Cogitamus. They fare a lot better than I would have expected, though not nearly as well as they ought to have given the mood of the country.



* Austin Kleon has a great post on attempts to fashion "The Bible According to Jesus," with a fantastic illustration.



* How poker, the "cheater's game," has become younger and more intense as high-stakes games become increasingly mainstream, in The Economist.

This may be the first time in seven years that I've been more or less happy with the direction of American democracy two whole days in a row: Congress has passed a major revision of the Freedom of Information Act, including:

Easier recovery of attorney’s fees when requesters are forced to file suit to get records;

The creation of a national FOIA ombudsman to mediate disputes between information requesters and government agencies;

A tracking system for individual information requests, and;

Penalties for agencies that fail to follow FOIA deadlines.

Also via MeFi. Like yesterday's energy bill, this isn't nearly perfect, but how refreshing to actually take the occasional step in the right direction...

Rep. Ed Markey at the Huffington Post has your 2007 Energy Bill scorecard. Overall, it's a decent step forward, but how's this for a travesty:

Long-term Production Tax Credit for Wind and Solar? No, not yet.
Ending the special tax deduction for Hummers? No, not now. Ouch. When the Senate dropped most tax provisions, this went with it, but it may soon return.

Via Jaimee.