The question she doesn’t appear to have asked herself is what, now, is the point of Cameron’s Conservatives — so scared of being branded the Nasty Party they are liable to retreat whenever anyone says boo.

Like David Frum, Anne appears to want a right of centre party she can vote for without feeling too embarrassed. Then she unwittingly puts her finger on the problem.

I can’t think of anything worse for Britain than another term in office for Labor, a party that has left the United Kingdom with a vast public deficit, an awkwardly (but irreversibly) reformed constitution and heavily restricted civil liberties. But the Tory Party’s nasty public image — arrogant, mean, small-minded — is proving difficult to discard.

Yes, but how did the Conservatives acquire their “arrogant, mean, small-minded” image? By enacting the sort of policies that reduce the deficit! You can’t have one without the other.

It turns out he’s rather well-informed about the situation in the UK too, noting how, for better or worse, the NHS has become a sacred cow before which politicians of the right have to regularly prostrate themselves.

Amusingly, he calls Dave’s reluctance to utter even the mildest criticism of the NHS ‘a pretty pitiful thing to watch’.

It’s possible Ryan, who’s 40, will be a senior figure in any future Republican administration by which time Dave could have his feet firmly under the table in Downing Street. Can’t you just hear that soundbite being gleefully wheeled out by the BBC as they shake hands outside No 10?

Here’s Ryan as quoted by Robert Costa of the National Review.

Just look across the pond at how terrible things have become,” Ryan says. In Britain, even Conservative leader David Cameron is politically unable or unwilling to criticize the National Health Service, and Ryan calls that “a pretty pitiful thing to watch.” President Obama knows this, Ryan says, and wants government health care to achieve the same level of entrenchment here at home.

So if conservatives now feel betrayed by Stupak and co, they have only themselves to blame.

As for Stupak himself, what a dangerous game he’s been playing. He marched his pro-life supporters up to the top of the hill and then didn’t so much march them down again as push them off the cliff.

In the process, he got himself into a situation where he would be a villain whichever way he finally voted. Politically inept doesn’t even begin to describe it.

And the executive order Stupak “won” as the price of his vote? Maybe he should have a word with David Trimble about how his covering letter from Tony Blair over the Good Friday agreement worked out.

If we’re lucky CNN International may ditch Good Evening Hong Kong for the US feed.

In which case it’s game over and the bill passes.

UPDATE He “postponed” the press conference and whatever deal there was appears to be off.

Politico divides them into Retirees, Nail Biters, Besieged and Misfits.

Michael Barone is not a Democratic party insider but he knows every district inside out. Here’s his breakdown of the clues to be found in yesterday’s vote on deem and pass.

Meanwhile the Washington Post has a graphic with a verdict on every congressman and the New York Times highlights those still in play.

So are women’s organisations up in arms about the case of Ginni Thomas, who, it’s suggested, can’t express political opinions of her own because she’s married to Supreme Court judge Clarence Thomas?

No, apparently they’re not bothered, just as they routinely allow Palin-bashing to go unchallenged.

CBS News seems to be almost alone in reporting on the reaction from conservative blogs, defending the right of married women to be involved in politics.

Here’s how the NBC Nightly News covered the story. They understandably focus on conflict of interest but there’s not even a mention of the feminist angle.

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What jumps out is the throwaway line that Brown and Obama ‘barely speak to each other’. Plus the observation that Obama’s positions on Afghanistan would be considered ‘far right’ in Britain — or should be, as we’ve pointed out many times before.

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Meanwhile, Nancy could not look more excited if the high school quarterback had just invited her to the prom. This is the Speaker on Friday night, about a minute into the CBS News report.

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