Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is in Washington today. He's having lunch with Obama at the White House. Zapatero was elected in 2004 and one of his first acts was to take Spain out of the "coalition of the willing" in Iraq. For that, he was ignored by the Bush administration. But, he's back in the fold now.

Today, the Senate Finance Committee will vote on the Baucus health care reform bill. There will be a lot of chatter and speculation about Olympia Snowe's vote. For some reason that defies rational thinking, the Obama administration has turned her into the most important Senator on health care. I guess that's because there are only 60 Democrats.

Eleven years ago, Matthew Shepard died. He was 21. The brutality of his murder shocked all of us. This week, the Senate will pass the Defense bill, which includes the hate crimes legislation. The passage of that bill is due in large part to the tireless work of Matthew's mother, Judy. Here's a video I got of Judy in July. She was at the Capitol working with Senator Reid on the bill:

Let's get started..