VOL. 3 NO. 178 POLITImonday, December 21, 2009 CO www.politico.com Hastert Still HEALTH CARE Has Some Fine Speaker Perks

By Ja k e Sh e rm a n a n d Jo h n Br e s n a h a n

U.S. taxpayers are spending more than $40,000 per month on office space, staff, cell phones and a leased SUV for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, even as he works as a lobbyist for private corporations and foreign governments. The payments are perfectly legal under a federal law that provides five years of benefits for former speakers — but only if Hastert never makes use of his government-funded perks in the course of his lobbying work. Ethics experts say that sort of sepa- ration is hard to maintain. Hastert “has to be meticulous in his schedule to make sure there is no bleed from his publicly subsi- dized office into his private practice,” said Kenneth Gross, a former Federal Election Commission general counsel and congressional ethics authority. Steve El- lis, vice president of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, called the arrangement “really

See hastert on Page 7 REUTERS Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) fields questions about the compromise on abortion that won his support for the health reform bill. The Christmas Eve End Game A Senate Republican leader vows Senate Democrats cut a deal to stay until Valentine’s Day and dig in for the next round

By Mi k e All e n By Ca rr i e Bu d o f f Br o w n a n d Pa t r i c k O’Co n n o r With victory finally in sight, Senate Democrats want to ram health care reform through the cham- Despite a last-minute weekend deal that put the AP ber with as little debate as possible. Republicans say Senate on the brink of passing health care reform Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert they’ll slow the votes down as much as the arcane this week, liberal and moderate Democrats remain rules will allow — until 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve, on a collision course over the bill, as both sides dug under current plans. in Sunday for the next phase of negotiations. Three votes are required to get the bill off the Sen- President Barack Obama’s liberal base and pow- ate floor. All could be done in one day, but Repub- erful union leaders once hoped the expected House- Climate Summit licans say they’re going to do what in union terms Senate conference would partly undo a year of re- would be called “working to the rule” — requiring treats and compromises, with Obama weighing in to Deal Just a Start 30 hours (including one “intervening day”) before nudge the moderate Senate bill to the left. the votes. But the titanic struggle to lock in Sen. Ben Nelson By Li s a Le r e r See timing on Page 13 See health care on Page 12 A day after the U.N. climate change conference ended in a fizzle, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said Sunday that he hopes the Senate will pass its own climate change bill sometime next year. Cooped-Up Senators Turn Very Cranky But to meet even that not-so-firm deadline, sup- porters will have to win over critics who say that By Ma n u Ra j u placing the clubby decorum that usually President Barack Obama promised too much in Co- prevails in the Senate. penhagen — and that the international community Senators are suffering from cabin fe- Republicans fumed last week when didn’t do nearly enough. ver — and it has nothing to do with the Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) revealed the Appearing on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Sen- snowstorm that socked Washington over contents of a private conversation with ate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) predicted that the weekend. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) in a fiercely not even a majority of the Senate’s Democrats would A marathon session of early-morning, critical speech on the floor. Democrats stand behind Obama’s pledge to provide billions of late-night and weekend votes — all com- boiled over when Republicans forced dollars in U.S. aid to help developing countries deal ing after senators are typically home for them to bring in the ailing Sen. Robert with the effects of global warming. the holidays — has everyone on edge Byrd (D-W.Va.) for a 1 a.m. cloture vote in the cooped-up Capitol, with testy ex- REUTERS See climate on Page 19 changes and harsh recriminations re- See senate on Page 15 Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) inside POLITICO 44 News politics CLICK A besieged David Axelrod ex- The president infuriates the left Congressional Republicans eye Sarah Looking back on the most memo- plains it all on the Sunday shows. with many unfulfilled promises. an opportunity in blue Hawaii. Palin rable politi-quotes of the year. PAGE 3 PAGE 6 PAGE 9 ap PAGE 20