Senate U S

As she returned to the Senate for the first time since ending her groundbreaking campaign to become the nation's first female president, Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that her goal now was simply to be the very best senator she could be. "I am rolling up my sleeves and getting back to work," she said.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, has out-raised his Democratic challenger by more than 2 to 1 in his reelection campaign. A 23-year veteran, he's a mainstay of politics in Kentucky, a state that President Bush easily won and that GOP presidential nominee John McCain is expected to carry. Yet two weeks before the election, McConnell's reelection is in question.

Sen. Joe Lieberman's affiliation with Democrats was in question after a meeting Thursday with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is steamed over the Connecticut independent's high-profile support of Republican John McCain for president. Reid, in a sternly worded statement after the 45-minute meeting, said no official decisions had been made.

President-elect Obama has told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid he's not interested in seeing Democrats oust Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman from their ranks over his endorsement of Republican John McCain. Obama told Reid in a phone conversation last week that expelling Lieberman from the Democratic caucus would hurt the message of bipartisanship and unity that he wants for his new administration, a Senate Democratic aide said Tuesday.

Joe Lieberman's longtime Democratic allies grew practically apoplectic as he backed John McCain for president, stumped for the Republican candidate and criticized Barack Obama. So when Obama won and Democrats cemented their hold on Congress, liberal activists demanded the independent Connecticut senator be tossed out of the Democratic caucus, and some Democratic senators called for him to be stripped of his committee chairmanship. But none of that looks like it's going to happen.

"Uncle Ted" Stevens, an old-style Senate giant and the chamber's longest-serving Republican, yielded the floor for the final time. He was saluted by his colleagues as a staunch friend and teacher. "My mission in life is not completed," the Alaska senator said in his farewell speech, as perhaps a quarter of the chamber's 100 members gathered to hear him and the gallery filled with his friends and family. Stevens, 85, made only a passing reference to his felony convictions and the loss this week of his bid for a seventh Senate term.

Ted Kaufman, a former aide to Sen. Joe Biden, was named by Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to fill the Senate seat Biden is leaving for the vice presidency. Kaufman plans to serve until the 2010 election, when a new senator is elected. Speculation on Biden's successor had focused on his son, Atty. Gen. Beau Biden. But last week Beau Biden announced that he planned to fulfill his Army National Guard duties and wouldn't accept an appointment to his father's seat. Beau Biden is a prosecutor for the 261st Signal Brigade, which left for Iraq last week.

It took three tries in as many days for President-elect Barack Obama to roll out a strategy for defusing the crisis over Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich's alleged attempt to put his old Senate seat up for sale. In his initial reaction, Obama said he was saddened by the episode, that he hadn't talked about the Senate seat with Blagojevich and that he wouldn't discuss an ongoing investigation.

Could this be an episode of "Family Feud," New York style? The contestants: Clintons, Kennedys and Cuomos, America's most famous Democratic dynasties. The prize they're sniffing around: a U.S. Senate seat, soon to be vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton. This week, Caroline Kennedy made it clear that she, like Andrew Cuomo, wants Clinton's spot after the senator ascends to secretary of State.

Weeks after suffering a brain hemorrhage, Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) is improving but still needs a ventilator at night to help him breathe, his doctor said. Dr. Vivek Deshmukh said there was no evidence the tangled arteries that triggered the senator's stroke remained and there was no need for further surgery. Johnson's long-term prognosis was still unclear.