By CAROLYN LOCHHEAD, San Francisco Chronicle

WASHINGTON - Anti-abortion Democrats have reignited the national abortion wars with their victory on an amendment to House health-care legislation that would prevent women from obtaining abortions through government-sponsored insurance or any plan that receives government subsidies.

WASHINGTON - Democrats' health-care reform legislation, which has moved fitfully through Congress, will reach two milestones this week.

The Senate Finance Committee is likely to pass its bill on Tuesday while the Congressional Budget Office reviews House legislation with three variations on a government-run insurance plan.

A president famous for his campaign skills has let the opposition define the debate on health care reform, the central issue of his party and his presidency.

As Democrats faced raucous town halls across the nation this past week, President Obama labored to squelch doubts about draft health legislation rather than tout its virtues.

President Obama's first official overture to the gay and lesbian community, granting a handful of benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, did little to quiet gay-rights activists who want him to push for repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Concern about a potential failed state -- not Pakistan, not Somalia, but Mexico -- is mounting in Washington as an all-out war involving 45,000 Mexican military personnel fails to quell rising drug violence that is spilling into the United States.

Behind the $825 billion poker game playing out in Washington this week is a tacit understanding on both sides: Republicans know Congress must act to address the sinking economy, and President Obama and Democrats know what they are doing had better work or they're in trouble a year from now.

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama's resounding election triumph has been greeted from nearly every quarter in Washington as a mandate for change. What was most striking after a resounding victory that also added at least five Democrats to the Senate and 23 to the House, was how gingerly Democratic leaders treated their new mandate.

WASHINGTON -- Voters gave Democrats the keys to the car Tuesday. Now President-elect Barack Obama has to drive it.

LEESBURG, Va. -- Virginians almost seem to be waging their own private civil war in this presidential election. In this battleground county within a battleground state, front lawns are the front lines. Giant McCain-Palin signs rise like fortifications on one side of the main street, facing Obama-Biden signs on the other.

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has struggled all year to connect with voters on the economy, and this week into his lap dropped a Wall Street meltdown of historic proportions.