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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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(CNN) – Former Democratic Rep. James Traficant, who in September was released from a federal prison after serving seven years on a bribery and racketeering conviction, told CNN Tuesday he will launch an independent bid to return to Congress.

“I will be running for congress…as an independent,” Traficant told CNN’s Kyra Philips. “I have been a Democrat all my life, and quite frankly I am disgusted with both parties. I hate to say this. My father is rolling over in his grave, a truck driver.”

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(CNN) – The vast majority of Americans believe Congress is not tackling the nation’s jobs problem, according to a new national poll.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Thursday found that 84 percent of Americans think Congress has not done enough to create jobs, and only 14 percent said they are satisfied with lawmakers’ efforts so far.

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Washington (CNN) — President Obama’s announcement Tuesday of loan guarantees for nuclear power plants may encourage new construction, but a problem still remains that has plagued atomic energy for decades: what to do with nuclear waste?

On the left, opponents of nuclear power say the president should not be using taxpayer money to help build more power plants that will produce even more radioactive material, so long as the government has not figured out where to put it all.

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PHOENIX – Former congressman J.D. Hayworth is kicking off a campaign challenging John McCain for his Senate seat — setting up a showdown between well-known Republicans that promises to be McCain’s toughest re-election battle.

Hayworth, a conservative talk-radio host, is starting with a rally in Phoenix on Monday followed by a three-day statewide tour.

Conservatives in Arizona have long been skeptical of McCain, who carved out a niche as a maverick senator working with Democrats on key issues.

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Washington (CNN) — President Obama called Thursday for high-level talks with Republicans to work out a compromise on health care legislation, then putting the resulting bill to a vote in Congress.

“If Congress decides we’re not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, after all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not,” Obama said. “That’s how democracy works.”

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President Obama and congressional Democratic leaders decided Tuesday to bypass a formal House and Senate conference to meld their health care bills, according to two congressional Democratic leadership sources.

The two told CNN that Obama and Democratic congressional leaders will instead hold informal negotiations to sidestep possible Republican delays of the process.

Avoiding a formal conference has long been expected, but one of the Democratic leadership sources said the president used Tuesday evening’s White House meeting with Democratic congressional leaders to formally clear the idea.

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Washington (CNN) — The most recent independent tests of airport checkpoints showed screener performance “falling off the charts,” according to the top Republican on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Results of the tests, in which plainclothes agents tried to sneak bomb components past screeners, are classified, but Rep. John Mica, R-Florida, said they went “from poor to worse.”

The tests were conducted at U.S. airports in late 2008 and early 2009 by the Government Accountability Office, the independent investigative arm of Congress.

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WASHINGTON – Amid soaring budget deficits, President Barack Obama is running into congressional qualms over how to pay for his troop buildup in Afghanistan. Military strategy aside, the $30 billion cost is causing concern on both sides of the aisle. Still, leaders in Congress predicted Wednesday that Obama would prevail in winning funding for the war escalation.

Some Democrats, favoring the 30,000 troop increase, are supporting a “war tax.” But the White House and most lawmakers appeared unwilling to take such a step.

Most likely, the federal government will simply increase its borrowing — as it has before.

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Washington (CNN) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled a sweeping health care bill Wednesday that would expand health insurance coverage to 30 million more Americans at an estimated cost of $849 billion over 10 years.

Reid and other Senate Democrats cited an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office for the coverage and cost figures.

In addition, they said at a news conference, the budget office estimated that the proposal would reduce the federal deficit by $127 billion over the next 10 years and by more than $600 billion in the following decade.