By LISA MASCARO, Las Vegas Sun

WASHINGTON - Republicans are so convinced that the fall midterm elections could be a repeat of 1994, the year that ushered them into the majority in Congress, they are reaching into the playbook for the prop that helped propel that victory: a new Contract with America.

WASHINGTON - The day after President Barack Obama's State of the Union address -- during which he uttered exactly one sentence about immigration reform -- Democratic congressional leaders were asked if the issue was dead.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stepped up to field the answer, even though the question had been directed at a colleague.

WASHINGTON - It began as so much unexpected fun -- the sledding on the grounds of the Capitol, the Facebook-inspired snowball fights and the clever nicknames for the freak storm -- snowpocalypse, snowmaggedon.

Until it wasn't.

WASHINGTON - One of the emerging trends in this hyperpartisan era of politics is the enhanced view senators have of their ability to be the one person who can make or break the legislative agenda.

WASHINGTON - Once the derisive nickname emerged -- the "Cornhusker kickback" -- it was all over.

The deal that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid cut for Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson to secure his vote on the massive health care reform bill had barely come to light before it was shot down in infamy.

WASHINGTON - Immigration reform. Climate-change policy. Wall Street oversight. Card check for labor unions. Some of the top legislative issues heading into the New Year are old ones, ideas that have been kicked around the halls of Congress for years.

WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. John Ensign has inserted a complicated legal question into the health care debate: Can the federal government require Americans to buy health insurance?

The health bill before the Senate would mandate that all Americans carry health insurance policies by 2014, with the government providing subsidies to help low- and middle-income families pay for them.

.Just as he made no apology for securing a special deal for Nevada three months ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made none this week for enticing reluctant Democratic senators to support health care legislation with high-end sweeteners.

WASHINGTON - The only difference is that this time, it's other states, not Nevada, getting the special deals.

After town-hall meetings, congressional hearings and a prime-time presidential address on health care reform, many questions remain about the proposals being considered on Capitol Hill.

As the Environmental Protection Agency moves forward with the nation's first-ever regulation of mercury emissions from gold mines, the agency's top administrator vows stricter monitoring of the toxin -- which continues to accumulate in streams, air and fish.