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      <title>Special Sections Current Issue</title>
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      <copyright>Copyright 2008 Roll Call. All rights Reserved.</copyright>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:24:23 EST</pubDate>
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      <item>
         <title><![CDATA[Reid: The Ultimate Closer]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[After taking a back seat for several months to two powerful committee chairmen, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) emerged as the central player in President Barack Obama's push to enact health care reform this year. ]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40542-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[Pelosi: Effective and All-Powerful]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[Displaying what has become the hallmark of her leadership style, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took a hands-on approach to crafting the compromises that produced the bare majority needed for House passage of a health care reform measure. ]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40544-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
      </item>

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         <title><![CDATA[Hoyer: Voice of the Moderates]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[The voice of moderate and politically vulnerable Democrats in leadership, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) spent much of the health care debate registering the substantive concerns and process gripes of centrists and communicating them to other top brass. ]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40535-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[Nelson: Playing Spoiler or Clincher?]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[When the House inserted anti-abortion language into its health care bill, the immediate question was whether the Senate would follow suit. The spotlight quickly shifted to Sen. Ben Nelson, the centrist Nebraska Democrat, who could be key in determining what will be in and out of any health care package.]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40534-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[Baucus: The Man in the Middle]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had hoped to be the champion of bipartisanship when it came to health care, and he moved heaven and earth to try to achieve it. ]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40543-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[Snowe: Keeps Both Sides Guessing ]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[As the lone GOP vote for the Senate Finance Committee's health care reform bill, Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) will continue to be courted by Democratic leaders looking for bipartisan support of their historic legislation.]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40545-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[Stupak: Surprise Player Confounds His Leadership]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), co-chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus, has toiled in relative obscurity through his nine terms. But he became a household name almost overnight earlier this month when he forced Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to allow his strong anti-abortion amendment to the health care reform bill on the floor, banning anyone from using new federal subsidies to buy an insurance plan that covers abortions.]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40532-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[Grijalva: Enforcer for House Progressives]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chairman of the 90-plus-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, emerged this year as a key player on health care reform as he helped resuscitate the public insurance option after a brutal August town hall season made many Congressional Democrats skittish about the idea.]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40533-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[Cantor: Colleagues Call Him 'Dr. No']]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[Tasked with limiting GOP defections, Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) will continue holding the line for his Conference in the ongoing health care debate. But as Cantor has realized recently, keeping the GOP's opposition unanimous is sometimes easier said than done.]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40531-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[Waxman: Mastered the Art of the Deal]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[One of the chief architects of the House health care bill, Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), has the policy chops to go toe to toe with anyone on the particulars of the overhaul and will play a key role in conference negotiations with the Senate.]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40530-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[Price and Boustany: Doctors Are in the House]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[As part of their multiprong strategy to shape the course of the health care debate, Republicans took to heart the classic 1970s song lyric, "doctor, doctor, give me the news."]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40548-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[McConnell: Persistent Critic ]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[At the beginning of this year's health care reform effort, pundits and the prognosticators alike considered Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his 40-member Conference inconsequential to the health care reform debate. But McConnell is still kicking.]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40549-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[Van Hollen: Weds Politics and Policy ]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[As Assistant to the Speaker and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, there's not much in the House that Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) doesn't leave his fingerprints on these days ­— and the recent health care bill is no exception.]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40529-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[Schumer: Brains and Brawn at Work]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[If the Senate passes a health care reform bill that includes a public insurance option, Senate Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) will likely get much of the credit given his tireless pursuit of a compromise on the issue.]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40528-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[Wilson and Grayson: Provocateurs Who Say What the Base Thinks]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA[The extreme wings of both parties each found an unexpected champion to carry their voices directly to the floor of the House of Representatives during the health care debate.]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40527-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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         <title><![CDATA[History Holds Lessons for Present Reform Fight]]></title>
         <description><![CDATA["I am not the first president to take up this cause," President Barack Obama said to a joint session of Congress in September, "but I am determined to be the last."He was referring, of course, to the cause of giving all Americans health insurance coverage. If he succeeds, it will be the culmination of a long, long journey building on the successes — and failures — of practically all his recent predecessors.]]></description>
         <link>http://www.rollcall.com/features/The_Closers/the_closers/40552-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS</link>
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