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WASHINGTON – House Democratic leaders abandoned a long struggle to appease the most ardent abortion opponents in their ranks, gambling Thursday that they can secure the support for President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care legislation with showdown votes looming next week.

In doing so, they are all but counting out a small but potentially decisive group whose views on abortion coverage have become the principal hang-up for Democrats fighting to achieve the biggest change in American health care in generations

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t. Charles, Missouri (CNN) — President Obama took his increasingly populist health care overhaul pitch to the political battleground state of Missouri Wednesday, turning up the heat on private health insurers in a speech.

“What we’re proposing is a common-sense approach to protecting you from insurance company abuses, and saving you money,” said Obama, his shirtsleeves rolled up in the 75-degree heat. “That’s the proposal and it’s paid for. I believe Congress owes the American people a final up-or-down vote on health care reform.”

He added, “The time for talk is over. It’s time to vote.”

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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama accused insurance companies of placing profits over people and said Republicans ignored long-festering problems when they held power as he sought to build support Monday for swift passage of legislation stalled in Congress.

“Let’s seize reform, the need is great,” Obama said at an appearance that had the feel of a campaign rally.

“How much higher do premiums have to rise before we do something about it?” said Obama, making the first in an expected string of out-of-town trips to pitch his plan to remake the health care system.

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WASHINGTON – In private pitches to Democrats, President Barack Obama says he will persuade Congress to pass his health care overhaul even if it kills him and even if he has to ask deeply distrustful lawmakers to trust him on a promise the White House doesn’t have the power to keep.

That, in a sometimes darkly joking way, is what the president is telling Democratic House members as he begins an all-out push to coax Congress into passing his proposals despite voters’ misgivings and Republicans’ dire warnings.

“He made the case, ‘Listen, we put in a very hard year working on health care reform and the time for action is now,’” said Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., one of several Democrats who met with Obama at the White House on Thursday.

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Most people would probably find it flattering to be called the brains behind the president of the United States. But not Karl Rove, the former senior adviser to President George W. Bush who has been called “Bush’s brain.”

The nickname, bestowed on Rove by Bush critics, isn’t a compliment to him but rather an insult to his former boss, Rove told TODAY’s Matt Lauer during an extensive interview he granted in conjunction with the publication of his book, “Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight.”

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Arlington, Virginia (CNN) — The man who authorities say shot and wounded two police officers outside the Pentagon Thursday before he was fatally shot had a history of mental health problems and a penchant for spouting anti-government conspiracy theories.

John Patrick Bedell repeatedly tangled with police in recent months, while his relationship with his parents — whom he lived with in a gated community in Northern California — grew increasingly contentious.

“There’s a history of mental health problems with him that the family’s been dealing with for a number of years,” San Benito County, California, Sheriff Curtis Hill said Friday.

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Washington (CNN) — President Obama has made it clear that it’s time for a simple up and down vote on his health care plan, noting that Americans are “waiting for us to act.”

But getting to the vote might not be so simple.

Republicans continue to voice their opposition to the reform bill. Some, such as House Minority Leader John Boehner, have called for scrapping the bills entirely and starting over.

Two Democratic aides said the goal is for the House to vote on the Senate health care bill and a vote on reconciliation instructions before Obama leaves on March 18 for his trip to Australia and Indonesia.

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AUSTIN, Texas – Gov. Rick Perry easily dispatched Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to win the Republican nomination for Texas governor on Tuesday in a heated primary that highlighted the growing anti-Washington mood among voters in this year’s midterm elections.

Hutchison was once seen as the candidate who could deliver Perry’s first election loss in a lifetime of public office. But the governor, a darling of the social conservatives, forcefully and successfully painted the senator as too entrenched in Washington politics.

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Washington (CNN) — While Democrats have recently threatened to use a parliamentary procedure to pass the health care reform bill, it is unclear whether their caucus will even have enough votes to take the first step.

Congressional negotiators have been working toward melding both chambers’ bills — which passed last year — so the legislation can move forward. It stalled when Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate with the upset victory of Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts special election.

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(CNN) — President Obama recently encouraged Americans to “take about 10 minutes to answer 10 questions” and fill out their 2010 census form.

This year’s questionnaire is one of the shortest in history, but the results of the survey have long-term effects.

The census, taken every 10 years, is used to determine how to allocate more than $400 billion in federal funds and seats House of Representatives and determine the boundaries of representatives’ districts.