LIGHTNING ROUND: BACK TO THE WARM EMBRACE OF TABLOID-ESQUE POLITICAL STORIES.

• Sen. Kent Conrad has denied reports from yesterday claiming that the White House was willing to sacrifice a public option in health care reform in order to get the bill passed. Meanwhile, we learn that Max Baucus regrets not making an attempt at implementing a single-payer plan, as it would have made the current public/private competition proposals on the table the clear compromise legislation.
• The Waxman-Markey climate change bill hasn't even made its way out of the the U.S. House of Representatives and already two important regulatory provisions have been compromised, giving authority to the USDA instead of the EPA. I'm not sure what this chimera is going to look like once it emerges from the Senate, but if Grist's Dave Roberts is "not freaked out" about the fate of the bill, then I suppose one can still remain cautiously optimistic.
• After three months, hearings, and a few anonymous holds, Legal Adviser to the State Department nominee Harold Koh finally received a cloture vote from the Senate, passing 65-31. Apparently, Republicans are threatening to use the entire remaining 30 hours of debate time to, I guess, stamp their feet and pout.
• I know hindsight is 20/20, but you would have thought that Politico would choose not to run their piece about the "Republican comeback" three stories below (as of this writing) screaming coverage of Mark Sanford's affair. It makes the story even harder to take seriously than when we were all ignorant of Sanford's lusty Latin adventures.
• I'm having real difficulty sympathizing with Dana Milbank's whining about White House press corps protocol being broken as an affront to Serious Journalists when he participates in garbage like this. I think Matt Welch is right to call it "probably the worst video in the history of YouTube."
• Remainders: Reihan Salam is on a roll with poorly-argued columns; funding for the F-22 has more lives than a cat; and the GOP has sunk nearly $1 million into Norm Coleman's ongoing court battle.

--Mori Dinauer