Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he was "horrified " at celebrations in Libya that greeted the return of the Lockerbie bomber.
He also said the U.S. should introduce a resolution at the United Nations condemning the celebrations, and called for an investigation into whether the release of the bomber was related to oil contracts between Libya and Great Britain.
"That would be despicable," he said.
British officials have said there was no link between the release of the bomber and business between the two countries.
Schumer said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton should all for Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to apologize for the celerations that greeted the return of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi.
Republicans "owe it to this country" to make clear what aspects of healthcare reform they would support, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean argued Sunday.
Rebutting claims that President Obama needs to make known whether he would support a healthcare bill without his favored public (or "government-run) option for consumers, Dean insisted that it's Republicans -- not Obama -- who need to make a more concrete stance.
"I think the Republicans owe it to this country to give us a much clearer message about what they'll support, and what they won't support," Dean said during an appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation."
Dean took a shot at Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a key Republican negotiator of bipartisan health compromise, for saying the Obama administration had sent "mixed signals" on health reform.
"We're getting pretty mixed signals from Sen. Grassley," Dean said. "I did not hear one time Sen. Grassley say what he would vote for. When he was in Iowa all last week, he basically letting people know that he didn't think he could vote for any bill that did not get the support of his Republican caucus and Republican leadership."
Dean, a physician who no longer practices, has emerged as a vocal proponent of the public option in recent weeks as the Democratic-backed component of health reform has been under attack by Republicans during the August congressional recess.
Dean condemned the idea of healthcare cooperatives, which have been proposed by some on the FInance Committee in lieu of the public option in order to win Republican and centrist Democrats' votes.
"That proposal is a political compromise, not a policy compromise," he said. "Nobody would know what it looks like."
A public (or "government-run") option in the healthcare bill before Congress is unlikely to survive conference between the House and Senate, a leader of the centrist Blue Dog coalition said this weekend.
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-N.D.) said that while there is a good chance the preliminary House bill will contain the controversial provision, the final bill which will head to the White House probably won't contain the option.
"I think that it will not survive the conference committee," Herseth Sandlin said during an interview with The Daily Republic. She said any version to pass through the House would have to be "structured under very stringent requirements to meet the many concerns that people have about the potential of driving out private companies that would offer plans on the exchange."
Blue Dogs have been reluctant to back the version of the healthcare bill in the House, over concerns about the public option, as well as over some of the taxes used to finance the $1 trillion bill.
Herseth Sandlin did not signal whether she would back healthcare cooperatives, a compromise under consideration by the Senate Finance Committee in order to bring in centrist Democrats' and Republicans' votes for the reform bill.
The South Dakota Democrat, the Blue Dogs' co-chairwoman for administration, said that if the healthcare bill were to have a public option, she would prefer it have a "trigger."
She did predict a more extended timeline for the healthcare debate than those in House and Senate Democratic leadership, who have said that they want to have a bill ready for the president's signature by October.
"I think there will be a real full-court press by the White House to try to get both chambers to act on something just to get it out of the chambers, get it to conference if the Senate Finance Committee can act," she said. "I think you
Democrats who have balked at supporting healthcare reform, not Republicans, are the problem when it comes to passing a bill this year, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) proclaimed Friday night.
Weiner, who's led a revolt of liberal Democrats in the House this past week against the idea of dropping a public option from the health bill, said that centrist Democrats are out-of-touch with the "mother ship" on healthcare, and encouraged Democrats to unite on the bill.
"One thing we have to stop doing is negotiating against ourselves," Weiner said during an appearance on the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC. "I mean, every time I turn on the television, find another Democrat or even sometimes the president backing away from the basic principles that are going to make health reform work -- and we have to stop that."
Weiner cast aspersions toward Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee who have huddled in negotiations with Republicans on healthcare, as well as recalcitrant Democrats in the House.
"I mean, it`s pretty clear, and you had this group of members of the House and Senate, none of whom are in touch with the mother ship," Weiner said. "You know, you have these guy who basically are the problem."
He advised Democrats to work amongst themselves to solve reform.
"I think that what we should be doing is trying to figure out what we, as Democrats, who are elected to turn this country around, what we should be thinking of doing," Weiner added.
Would conservative Fox News and radio host Sean Hannity ever run for president?
Probably not, but don't count it out.
The conservative website World Net Daily is reporting that when Hannity was pressed on a run during his radio show on Friday, he wouldn't rule it out.
""I've never made a decision in my life without -- whatever destiny God has you've got to fulfill it," Hannity said. "I'm not sure that's my destiny."
Those words call to mind what Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) had said when asked if she'd ever run.
"If I felt that's what the Lord was calling me to do, I would do it," Bachmann said. "When I have sensed that the Lord is calling me to do something, I've said yes to it. But I will not seek a higher office if God is not calling me to do it."
"Would any of you really want me to run?" Hannity asked the live audience at Friday's show, to cheers. When he asked if he should stay on the radio, World Net Daily reported, there was no applause.
President Obama sought on Saturday to debunk what he termed as "outrageous myths" floating around in the media about his push for healthcare reform in his weekly radio address.
Framing his signature initiative as the hallmark of this political generation, the president again laid out his arguments to overhaul the health system in America.
It's become apparent that the Department of Homeland Security's terror threat level system were part of the Bush administration's "political toolbox," Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said Friday.
Reacting to former Secretary Tom Ridge's revelations in a forthcoming book that he was pressured to raise the threat level around election time, Moran said liberals' suspicions about the manipulation of the system have been confirmed.
"I think the threat alert was the kind of tool they would bring out in their political toolbox," Moran said during an appearance on MSNBC this afternoon.
"Tom is essentially confirming what many of us suspected: the timing was suspicious," he explained. "The reason that George Bush was reeelected in 2004 was because largely because people were scared, and they felt that he would be toughest on the perceived enemies, real or unreal."
Moran blamed the Bush administration for manipulating Americans' sense of fear of another terrorist attack via the infamous, color-coded threat level system.
"I do think that the Bush administration had a habit of using emotions like fear and the need for security and so on for its own political advantage," he said.
Americans have been "traumatized" by the national debate over healthcare reform, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Friday.
The shrill terms of the debate, such as so-called "death panels," as well as a fear by those who are currently insured about whether their coverage would suffer have distressed the country, Nelson told CNN Radio.
"America has been traumatized by the debate because of the labeling of certain parts -- like the hospice panel -- as the 'death panel,'" Nelson said.
"The concern is what happens to the 200 million Americans who have coverage on the private side right now," Nelson added. "They're worried that they're going to lose something for somebody else to win something."
Nelson said that his own town halls have been rather civil, but that the raucous confrontations taking place at some of his colleagues' meetings would play out once they return to Washington in September.
He argued it was "premature" to say whether or not the bill would be able to pass, but anticipated a higher-level discussion of healthcare next month.
"I think it'll be a better debate when we get back to Washington," Nelson said. "I also think it will be a time to put to use what we've heard back home."
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) continued her Facebook note campaign against healthcare reform, writing Friday that tort reform is a necessary part of healthcare legislation.
"As Governor of Alaska, I learned a little bit about being a target for frivolous suits and complaints (Please, do I really need to footnote that?)" Palin wrote on her Facebook page.
Paraphrasing former President Bill Clinton, Palin said she feels health care providers' pain, arguing those companies are targeted by "opportunists and people with no scruples."
"We cannot have health care reform without tort reform," Palin insisted. "The two are intertwined."
Palin posed questions for Obama, a recurring feature in her series of Facebook notes: "Why no legal reform? Why continue to encourage defensive medicine that wastes billions of dollars and does nothing for the patients? Do you want health care reform to benefit trial attorneys or patients?"
Palin's Facebook notes, of course, set off the debate over so-called "death panels" in regards to end-of-life care in healthcare reform legislation earlier this month.
It was unacceptable for Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to shout down a constituent at a town hall meeting who compared President Obama to Nazi leader Adolph Hitler, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said Friday.
Blackburn told CNBC in an interview that while it is not okay for the protester, a reported Lyndon LaRouche supporter to compare the president to the fascist leader, members of Congress should be held to a higher standard when conducting their town hall meetings.
"No it does not mean that it is okay to walk in with a poster like that, nor does it mean that it is okay or acceptable for Congressman Frank to respond in that way," Blackburn said.
"I think that it is imperative that we, as members of Congress, conduct our town halls in a way that ensures individuals that they are going to be heard," she added. "And that is what I think most members of Congress have sought to do during this recess."
The famously abrasive Frank exploded at the town hall participant who made the comparison, asking her what planet she lives on, and told her, "Trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table."
Blackburn said that while protesters have often been boisterous in disrupting town hall meetings during the August recess, lawmakers must be "respectful of the American people."
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