Wasn’t that easy? It only took months of negotiations, bitter debate, procedural technicalities, and last-minute deals for President Obama’s health-care bill, the would-be hallmark of his presidency, to pass. After heated debate on the House floor Sunday night, the bill passed by a slim majority of 219 to 212. As expected, no Republicans voted for the measure. When the 216th vote was counted, Democrats began cheering, clapping, and chanting “Yes we can” in the chamber. Soon after, Democrats passed the reconciliation bill with 220 votes, which will go back to the Senate for passage. The pendulum swung for good in the Democrats’ race to 216 votes Sunday morning when the White House struck a deal with anti-abortion House Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI). Obama agreed to sign a somewhat controversial executive order preventing federal funding for abortions under the measure. Obama is expected to hold a ceremony this week to sign the bill into law. The bill will extend health-insurance to 32 million Americans and reduce Medicare spending in the future by about $500 billion.

Before the vote on health-care reform John Boehner asked Republican lawmakers to “behave like grownups” if the health-care bill passed. But right before the bill passed, Boehner apparently wasn’t quite ready to take his own advice. Asking members of the House if they could honestly say the bill came about through transparency and openness, he answered his own question in a call-and-response preacher style. “Hell, no, you can’t!” he shouted. “Have you read the bill? Have you read the reconciliation bill? Have you read the manager’s amendment? Hell, no, you haven’t.” With the room getting a bit testy, Representative David Obey (D-WI), in the chair, reminded everyone where they were. “Both sides would do well to remember the dignity of the House,” Obey said. Speaker Pelosi spoke next, thanking President Obama and the late Ted Kennedy, before the House passed the historic reform.

In Tiger Woods' first interview in four months, the golfer told ESPN, "I've done some pretty bad things in my life." (For a full transcript, click here.) In another interview on the Golf Channel, he added, "I tried to stop and couldn't stop," and said he became "disgusted" with himself as he carried on affair after affair. He dodged a question about exactly how many affairs he had, saying "one is enough." ESPN's Tom Rinaldi asked why he married wife Elin Nordegren. "Why? 'Cause I loved her. I loved Elin with everything I have. And that's something that makes me feel even worse. That I did this to someone I loved that much," Woods said. He added that he missed the "guidance" of his deceased father. Woods said he will continue receiving therapy and will return to golf next month at the Masters.

The impending Republican defeat on health care is much worse than most conservatives realize, according to former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum. And what he calls the party's "most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s," will hardly be rectified come November. Frum writes that conservatives should be worried about the elections for two reasons: "The economy will have improved and the immediate goodies in the health-care bill will be reaching key voting blocs." The biggest mistake Republicans made was letting themselves be led by radical pundits who were uninterested in true debate, Frum says. "We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement," he writes, "and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat… It's Waterloo all right: ours."

Under Leon Panetta, the former congressman and Clinton hand, the CIA has grown increasingly aggressive, chasing down al Qaeda and Taliban members in Pakistan. The beefed-up agency is a bit of a surprise for foreign-policy watchers as Panetta had little military-intelligence experience to speak of before he took the post 13 months ago. Yet his willingness to use force has won allies. "I've never sensed him shirking from it," one official told The Washington Post. Some are not pleased with spy agency's renewed swagger. Watchdog groups have begun to challenge the drone attacks, which have been used to target people in Pakistan.

Even though his health-care bill has passed, President Obama is not done defending it. He is about to unleash a sweeping media blitz geared toward convincing Americans that the bill is in fact good for them as November approaches. "There's an overwhelming likelihood that every race in the country is going to be a referendum on this issue this fall if this passes," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said last week. In the face of a Republican campaign to tarnish the bill, the White House’s public-relations strategy will focus first on the immediate aftermath of the bill’s passage, then on the time until the midterm elections, and finally on the several years to come as more of the bill’s provisions come into effect.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, whose coalition has fallen into second place as the national vote tally nears completion, is demanding a manual recount of the votes from Iraq’s March 7 parliamentary election. The Independent High Electoral Commission rejected Maliki’s call to, in his words, "preserve the integrity of the electoral process." The commission told the press there were not “compelling reasons” and enough evidence of widespread fraud in the vote to have a recount. Commission heads said the polls had been transparent and closely monitored, including by the United Nations. Because seats in Iraq’s parliament are apportioned according to province-by-province vote totals, the election is too close to call. Maliki’s group leads by that measure, but the secular Iraqiya coalition leads nationwide.

After yesterday’s ugly scenes inside and outside the Capitol, the health-care protests returned to Congress with nearly the same intensity—much to the delight of the Republicans inside. This afternoon, three members of Congress stepped out on one of the building’s balconies to add a little fuel to the fire by unfurling a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag. And yesterday, after an anti-reformer in the House’s public gallery became too rowdy, Democrat Barney Frank said the Republicans were egging him on. "I've never seen members of the House cheering on a guy resisting being kicked out of the chamber," said Frank, who was bombarded with epithets yesterday. "It's a dangerous situation and the Republicans are cheering him on." Frank was called a “faggot” by protesters inside the Capitol building, and other protesters chanted the N word at civil-rights hero Rep. John Lewis (D-GA). But California Republican Devin Nunes says that the Democrats have only themselves to blame for the abuse. “When you use totalitarian tactics, people begin to act crazy,” he told Washington Journal this morning.

For the first time since Penn did it in 1979, a team from the Ivy League will be in the final 16 of the NCAA Tournament. With an 87-69 hiding of No. 4 seed Wisconsin, No. 12 seed Cornell booked a spot to play top-seeded Kentucky next week in what is widely expected to be a mismatch. Still, they have played with surprising poise, trailing only for a total of three minutes in their two tournament games so far. Now, after playing its first two games in Jacksonville, Cornell will move closer to home: They will play next week at Syracuse’s Carrier Dome, less than an hour’s distance from Ithaca. In other basketball news, No. 5 Michigan State upset No. 4 Maryland, with a three-pointer at the buzzer.

Will immigration be next? Upset that the issue has been overshadowed by health-care reform, tens of thousands of people gathered on Washington's National Mall Sunday to draw attention back to reforming immigration. They chanted for President Obama to remember his campaign promise to immigrants, even as it seems increasingly unlikely that the issue will be on his agenda leading up to the midterm elections. Activists are now trying to link immigration to the economy. "What's important today is that jobs and immigration go hand in hand," Marc Morial of the National Urban League said. "When you've got millions of undocumented workers working off the books—that affects the economy for everyone." A bipartisan proposal on immigration is in the works—with the approval of the White House—but there is no bill on the horizon.

Filling in for President Obama, former President Bill Clinton “rocked” the crowd at the Gridiron Club annual dinner, NPR reports. The dinner, an “evening when old journalists and old politicians mingle,” is a longstanding tradition in Washington. "I really didn't have anything much better to do tonight,” Clinton said, explaining his appearance Saturday night. He joked about politicians and health care, saying of the latter that, "It may not happen in my lifetime, or Dick Cheney's, but hopefully by Easter.” (He and the former veep both have heart problems.) Of the somewhat controversial current White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, Clinton said, "I found Rahm. I created him. I made him what he is today. I am so sorry." Clinton “just has that great Southern storyteller's ability to spin out a joke just so,” NPR writes. He’s probably “the closest thing we've had to Mark Twain, or a Twain character, in the White House in our lifetimes.”

The governor’s race in California is shaping up to be the most expensive non-presidential race in history. Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO, is likely to be the Republican nominee, and Jerry Brown, the longtime California pol, the Democratic one. Whitman says she’s ready to spend $150 million on the campaign, $2 million more than the record-setting 2002 New York gubernatorial race in which Republican George Pataki triumphed. Whitman’s recent advertising blitz has demolished her huge deficit in the polls, and now the two are running neck and neck. That prompted Brown to step up his attacks on the businesswoman this weekend, charging that Whitman was trying to “buy the election,” by trying to “scapegoat” immigrants” and “crush the poor” all while nestled in “the loving embrace of Wall Street.”

Not so fast, says Sen. Orrin Hatch. “If those people think they’re only going to vote on this once, they’re nuts,” said the Utah Republican, who is known for his bipartisanship, on Saturday. Hatch promised that the Senate would send the final bill back to the House once more to vote based on points of order which would alter the measure. He also questioned the constitutionality of Sunday's vote. On Saturday, the House abandoned plans to use a form of parliamentary procedure known as "deem and pass," which had rankled opponents.

Iran has been teaching Taliban commanders to plant improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and mount ambushes to kill NATO troops in Afghanistan, the Times of London reports. The Taliban leaders say Iran paid for the training, a three-month course, over the winter, when they were sneaked into the southeast Iranian city Zahidan. There, they were taught by a plainclothes instructor in the first month how to attack convoys and escape. Then they were taught how to plant IEDs so that one group of soldiers is killed in one bomb wave and their rescuers are killed in another. Finally, they learned how to charge NATO bases and checkpoints. Western officials say the crackdown on Pakistani support for the Taliban has led the insurgent group to get aid elsewhere.

Here’s an interesting statistic: Americans received 18 percent fewer plastic-surgery procedures in 2009. The recession is likely to blame for people foregoing the surgical tweaking that has become common in the U.S. The financial crisis fallout hit many luxury industries hard, and cosmetic surgery is no exception: People got just 1.9 million procedures last year, compared to 2.1 million in 2005. Some argue that American culture is changing, pulling back from the plastic boom, marked by nose job-centric TV shows like Nip/Tuck, Extreme Makeover, and The Swan. "When it comes to plastic surgery, people are now using more common sense. They don't want radical procedures," a Miami Beach plastic surgeon said. Those who do want breast implants, for example, want smaller silicone bags, another doctor says. Non-surgical procedures, like Botox, are still rising, however. On the other hand, many expect the numbers to bounce back: Insecurity is recession-proof.

Alice is still wonderful, but this weekend saw an unlikely winner at the box office, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which pulled in $21.8 million, more than any other new movie. The comic book adaptation from 20th Century Fox defeated The Bounty Hunter, starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler, as well as Repo Men, the sci-fi flick starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, which took in a measly $6.2 million. Alice in Wonderland held on to the top spot, with a $34.5 million haul—bringing its total to $265.8 million in 17 days. Repo Men is the third in a string of flops for Universal Pictures and Relativity, which put out the poorly performing Green Zone and The Wolfman. In limited release, Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg did a decent $120,432 in three theaters, and Kristen Stewart’s rock-filled The Runaways was only so-so, with $803,629 in 244 locations.

Future National Spelling Bee champs take note. Hundreds in Iceland were evacuated from the area around Eyjafjallajokull, a volcano that erupted just before midnight Saturday. The volcano spewed molten rock and ash into the sky, and a state of emergency was called as scientists feared the eruption could cause one in the bigger volcano nearby, Katla. TV cameras captured lava oozing along the fissure. The 400 evacuated villagers had to leave their animals behind. Floods were avoided because the eruption didn’t happen below the huge glacier that bears the same name. A geologist called it the best possible place for an eruption.

Over and over today, House Democrats insisted they finally had the votes to pass the health-care bill and a preliminary vote has proved them right. By a margin of 224 to 206, the House approved a critical procedural step to pass the health-care bill, making it all but certain that it will pass when the House votes again, later tonight. President Obama and House Democrats cut a deal with anti-abortion representatives, led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), that brought over enough votes. Obama agreed to issue an executive order "to ensure that federal funds are not used for abortion services" under the bill—a move that the National Organization for Women sharply criticized.

After trying to crack down on teenage sexting by charging offenders with felony child-porn offenses, states are rethinking their approach. Perhaps, some argue, a split-second decision made by an impulsive teen mind should not carry the risk of decades on a sex-offender registry. Nebraska, Utah, and Vermont all changed their laws last year to reduce severity of the penalties in recognition of the sexualized culture that pervades sites like MySpace and Facebook. Fourteen other states are considering new laws that would treat underage sexters differently from adult child pornographers. On Wednesday, a federal appellate court found that a district attorney had gone too far pushing to bring child-porn charges against some 16-year-old girls who sent pictures of themselves in skimpy clothing to peers’ cellphones. Lawyers say such use of the statues have results far from the intent of child-porn laws, which are to protect kids from pedophiles, not severely punish the bad judgment of a high-school student.

American Idol judge Simon Cowell has big plans for his upcoming wedding with Mezhgan Hussainy—he wants a Caribbean ceremony conducted on a yacht named for himself, according to Britain’s Daily Mail. The tabloid says Cowell wants to pick up wedding guests in Barbados aboard The Simon Cowell and take them to St. Barts for the nuptials. The mogul’s 84-year-old mother would prefer a nice British wedding in East Sussex, however. But the Caribbean event would be more convenient for Afghan-born Hussainy’s family, who live in Los Angeles. The 50-year-old reality-TV star proposed to 36-year-old Hussainy on Valentine’s Day.

Former Prime Minster Ayad Allawi, leader of the secular coalition Iraqiya, has moved ahead of current Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki in the vote tally of Iraq’s parliamentary elections. With 92 percent of votes counted, Allawi leads by 7,970 nationwide. Maliki’s coalition is leading in seven provinces, compared with Allawi's five; the province-by-province count is how seats in parliament are determined. It’s unclear whether the Iraqiya lead will hold and whether that will mean more seats. Allawi, a Shia, has won over many Sunni Iraqis with his anti-Iran rhetoric, as well as some Shia concerned with their neighbor’s growing influence.

In the biggest upset of March Madness, Northern Iowa beat top seed Kansas 69 to 67 with a last-minute three-point shot by Ali Farokhmanesh. The victory of the ninth-seeded Panthers marks the first time a No. 1 seed has been defeated in the second round in six years, when the University of Alabama at Birmingham beat Kentucky and Alabama beat Stanford in 2004. The NCAA tournament has seen a large number of upsets thus far. In the showdown between 10th-seeded Saint Mary’s and 2nd-seeded Villanova, center Omar Samhan was the game's leading scorer, racking up 32 points and seven rebounds, and led St. Mary's to a 75-68 triumph. Post-game, Samhan shouted in the locker room, “Did it really happen? We won? For real?” Saint Mary’s will advance to play Old Dominion or Baylor on Thursday.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sharply criticized the existence of financial firms that are “too big to fail” and said policy should perhaps be changed to tackle the problem. Bernanke, speaking at the Independent Community Bankers of America conference in Florida, said those companies posed an “insidious” barrier to competition in the financial-services industry and Washington should find a way to dial back those firms that risk the global financial system. "It is unconscionable that the fate of the world economy should be so closely tied to the fortunes of a relatively small number of giant financial firms," Bernanke said. Congress is considering financial-market reforms, and the Fed chief said he supported an agency with the power to “impose losses on debt holders, override contracts, and replace managers and directors as appropriate” when the biggest companies get in trouble. Bernanke said he also wanted huge firms to have a “living will”—a plan for breaking up the company if its problems get too big to handle.

It’s coming down to the wire, but Democratic leaders now predict they have more than the 216 votes needed to pass historic health-care reform later today. President Obama’s speech last night was enough to sway one member of the House—Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio said this morning she will vote for the legislation. And Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), one of the most outspoken lawmakers in this process, announced he was signing on to the bill after he and a half-dozen anti-abortion Democrats worked out language for an executive order from Obama that would clarify that taxpayer money would not be used to fund abortions. He said the Democrats had "well passed" the 216 mark. On ABC's This Week, House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson said, "We have the votes now—as we speak." The House will have three major votes today, the first on the rules of debate, then a vote on the reconciliation package, and a vote on the original Senate bill, expected after 6 p.m.