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WASHINGTON (CNN) - Freshman Congressman Alan Grayson refused to back down Wednesday from controversial remarks he made on the House floor the night before saying the Republican health care plan calls for sick people to "die quickly."

In fact, Grayson - a Democrat who represents a central Florida swing district that includes Orlando - made another floor speech in which he apologized to the dead and their families for not acting sooner on health care reform, and then defended both speeches on CNN's "The Situation Room."

"What I mean is they have got no plan," Grayson told Wolf Blitzer. "It's been 24 hours since I said that. Where is the Republican plan? We're all waiting to see something that will take care of the pre-existing conditions, to take care of the 40 million Americans who have no coverage at all.

"That's what I meant when I said that the Republican plan is don't get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly."

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WASHINGTON(CNN)–In the latest installment of CNN=Politics Daily: President Obama talked strategy with his national security team Wednesday. CNN's White House Correspondent Dan Lothian reports on who is advising the president.

Meanwhile First Lady Michelle Obama is in Copenhagen to lend her support for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid. CNN's Mary Snowe takes a look at the odds that the first lady's hometown will land the games.

Plus: Revelations last week about a Iranian nuclear facility have prompted calls for action against Iran's regime on the eve of talks with the country. CNN's State Department Correspondent Jill Dougherty is in the Situation Room to analyze the high stakes negotiations.

Finally: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was "president" for a day as she chaired a United Nations Security Council session regarding violence against women. "It is time for all of us to resume our responsibility," the long time women's rights advocate told her male counterparts. CNN's Senior United Nations Correspondent Richard Roth has the story.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - A meeting between President Obama and his national security team Wednesday could be a turning point in the war in Afghanistan, says someone who's been in similar meetings.

Stephen Hadley, a former national security adviser in the Bush administration, said the meeting would be a "vigorous debate" in which "views will change ... may be some emerging consensus."

"And one of the purposes of the kind of process that they're going through now is to take people with the range of views, express their views to the president and see in an interactive process," Hadley said.

"Again, the fact that the president is interacting directly with his national security principles and hopefully with his diplomats and military officers in the field, allows for a process in some sense that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts," he said.

But in the end, the decision rests solely with the commander in chief, who Hadley said sets the tone and direction of the negotiations with his advisers. "What we know and what we're told about this president is that he's very deliberate and that he wants to hear from everyone in the room. ... I think they [Obama's advisers] will speak freely ... and it will put him in a position where he feels comfortable making the decision that, really, only he can make."

But the president faces varying opinions from within his administration, including recent reports that his vice president is urging a counterterrorism strategy that would focus on targeting al Qaeda and Taliban forces.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Under fire for his claim that the GOP health care plan calls for sick people to "die quickly," Rep. Alan Grayson finally apologized - but not to Republicans.

"Last night, I gave a speech, and I'm not going to recount everything I said, but after that speech, several Republicans asked me to apologize," the Florida Democrat said in a defiant speech on the House floor Wednesday. "I would like to apologize."

Grayson then pointed to a Harvard study that reported more than 44,000 Americans die yearly because they lack health insurance. "That is ten times more than the number of Americans who have died in Iraq and who died in 9/11," he said. "But that was just once. This is every single year. That's right. Every single year. Take a look at this. Read it and weep."

"I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America," he concluded.

House Republicans initially wanted to introduce a resolution condemning Grayson for breaching House decorum with his remarks on Tuesday night, but the resolution's sponsor, Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, decided on Wednesday not to introduce the resolution and instead asked for Grayson to apologize to House GOP leadership.

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(CNN) – Sarah Palin's 432 page memoir isn't set to be released for more than seven weeks, but the highly anticipated tell-all has already shot to No. 1 on Barnes and Nobles' Web site, supplanting new releases from bestselling authors Dan Brown and Mitch Albom.

The forthcoming book has also vaulted up Amazon.com's bestseller list, currently holding the No. 3 spot just behind Glenn Beck's "Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government."

The book - titled "Going Rogue: An American Life" in reference to the anonymous criticism directed at the former Alaska governor by aides to Republican presidential nominee John McCain - is scheduled to be released on November 17.

Palin's publisher, Harper, has ordered a massive first printing of 1.5 million copies, and is not releasing an electronic version until the day after Christmas in an effort to drive up sales of the more expensive hardcover edition, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Republican Sen. Bob Corker suggested Wednesday that when it comes to health care, Canada and France have a "parasitic relationship" towards the United States.

During a hearing of the Special Committee on Aging, the Tennessee Republican told Canada's former Public Health Minister, Dr. Carolyn Bennett, that her country is "living off of us" because they set lower prices for health care and "all the innovation, all the technology breakthroughs just about take place in our country and we have to pay for it."

"It is not really our country so much is the problem, it's sort of the parasitic relationship that Canada, and France, and other countries have towards us," Corker said. "...You benefit from us, and we pay for that. And I resent that, and I want to figure out a way to solve that."

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Republican amendments that Democrats said would broaden current restrictions on federal funding for abortion were defeated Wednesday by a Senate committee considering the only compromise health care bill so far.

By identical 13-10 votes, the Senate Finance Committee defeated the amendments by Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. In both votes, all but one Democrat on the panel - Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota - voted against the amendments, while all Republicans except for Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine - the lone women among the GOP committee members - supported them.

In a statement issued after the votes, Hatch said he was disappointed but would continue pushing the issue when the bill comes to the full Senate.

"Although these two very important amendments fell short today, you can rest assured that I will continue to fight for these vital issues," Hatch said.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Barack Obama wears the fundraiser-in-chief hat Thursday, as he headlines an event for the Democratic Governors Association.

The fundraiser at the St. Regis hotel in Washington is expected to rake in around a half a million dollars, according to a source at the DGA.

The event will be Obama's first for the DGA since his inauguration. Because the president refuses contributions from political action committees and registered lobbyists, those donations will not be accepted for the event.

Thirty-nine states will hold contests for governor between now and November 2010. Democrats will be defending 21 of those seats, starting with elections in five weeks in New Jersey and Virginia. While the campaigns in both of those states concentrate on local issues and the candidates themselves, they're also partially viewed as an early referendum on the Obama presidency. Obama has traveled to both states to campaign personally with the candidates, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and Creigh Deeds, a state senator from Virginia.

The DGA raised a record-breaking $11.6 million in the first half of the year. But their GOP counterpart, the Republican Governors Association, outraised them by around $600,000 during that same time period.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – House Republicans changed course on Wednesday and decided not to move forward with a resolution condemning Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Florida, for saying that the GOP health care plan calls for sick people to "die quickly."

"It's a very simple plan," Grayson said in a floor speech about health care on Tuesday night. "Don't get sick. That's what the Republicans have in mind. And if you get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: die quickly."

Tom Price, the Georgia congressman who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee, announced Wednesday morning that he would introduce a resolution condemning Grayson for breaching House decorum.

But a few hours later, Price decided to hold his fire and give Grayson a chance to apologize to House Minority Leader John Boehner for his remarks.

"We thought that we would give Congressman Grayson an opportunity to do the right thing and recognize the comments that he made were disrespectful to the House and to the decorum," Price told CNN.

Price said Grayson, who hails from a conservative district in central Florida, "has maligned half, if not more than half, of his own constituents" who are Republican.

Asked if he will introduce the resolution if Grayson refuses to apologize, Price said "we'll certainly consider it."

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – MoveOn.org is targeting three Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee who voted against provisions that would have called for a new government-run health insurance program.

The liberal advocacy group announced Wednesday that it will release radio ads on Thursday condemning North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad, Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Montana Sen. Max Baucus, who joined all 10 Republicans on the committee on Tuesday in rejecting two amendments that would have included a public option in the health care bill.

In the ads, the group says the senators "sided with the special interests and insurance companies" over their constituents.

The spots will run for a week in the senators' home states.

(CNN) – Sometimes, even in Washington, there's no way around a central truth: that in governing, there are moments when real, tough decisions must be made. No waffling. None of the usual "on the one hand, on the other hand." No hiding behind the votes cast by others.

There is one vote, and it belongs to the president.

It was that way with George W. Bush in December 2006, when, after conferring for three months with his generals and his Cabinet - not to mention the advice offered by the pooh-bahs in the Iraq Study Group - he decided on a surge strategy in Iraq. It was not a plan highly touted by many of his advisers, but by January, Bush told the nation "America will change our strategy ... [and] this will require increasing American force levels."

As it turns out, the surge worked.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - The videotaped beating death of an honors student in Chicago, Illinois, is "chilling" and one of the most shocking things "you can ever see," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday.

At his daily news briefing, Gibbs said President Barack Obama was concerned about the killing and the issue of violence in his former hometown. He said Obama discussed the matter earlier Wednesday in the Oval Office.

"This is not just a Chicago-specific problem," Gibbs said. "Obviously, youth crime and gang violence are something that this administration takes seriously and we'll have more on that soon."
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(CNN) – Republicans are pouncing on a late-night House floor speech from Rep. Alan Grayson, during which the freshman Florida Democrat said the Republican health care plan calls for sick people to "die quickly."

"It's a very simple plan," Grayson said in the speech Tuesday night. "Don't get sick. That's what the Republicans have in mind. And if you get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: die quickly."

The after-hours speech, which included prominent banners behind the congressman to reinforce his point, drew immediate calls from some Republicans for an apology.

"That is about the most mean-spirited partisan statement that I've ever heard made on this floor, and I, for one, don't appreciate it," Tennessee Republican Rep. Jimmy Duncan told the Politico.

Grayson has not issued an apology, and a spokesman for the congressman said no additional statement on the matter is forthcoming.

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(CNN) - As lawmakers huddled this summer to put together the framework for health care legislation, it quickly became evident that the battle over President Obama's top priority would be neither quick nor easy.

After months of debate and missed deadlines, the public option has emerged as the main sticking point.

From the beginning, some Democrats said they wouldn't pass a bill without a government-sponsored, public option, while other Democrats and most Republicans said they'd say no to any plan that included one.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Setting the stage for a dramatic battle over gun rights, the Supreme Court Wednesday accepted an appeal challenging the ability of state and local governments to enforce strict limits on handguns and other weapons.

The high court returned from its summer recess, meeting in private to consider thousands of pending appeals that have piled up the past three months. The Second Amendment case from Chicago was the most anticipated of the petitions, and oral arguments will be held sometime early next year. Nine other cases were also accepted for review.

At issue is whether the constitutional "right of the people to keep and bear arms" applies to local gun control ordinances, or only to federal restrictions. The basic question has remained unanswered for decades, and gives the conservative majority on the high court another chance to allow individuals expanded weapon ownership rights.

The appeal was filed by a community activist in Chicago who sought a handgun for protection from gangs.

The justices last year affirmed an individual right to possess handguns, tossing out restrictive laws in Washington, D.C.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Supreme Court has agreed to review a civil liberties dispute over the government's power to criminalize "support" of a terrorist organization.

The justices on Wednesday accepted review of a key provision of the 2001 Patriot Act, and whether it threatens free speech rights of those who would assist non-violent activities of designated groups.

Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States, federal prosecutors have pursued "material support" cases against at least 120 individuals or organizations, winning convictions in about half of those cases. Nearly every such domestic terrorism-related prosecution has included that charge as part of the indictment.

At issue is whether the congressional law allows prosecution of those with knowledge of "any service, training, expert advice or assistance" to a foreign terrorist organization, as designated by the U.S. government.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco, California, struck down several parts of the legislation, finding them too vague to satisfy the Constitution. The government then asked the high court to intervene and uphold the law.

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(CNN) – Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele Wednesday beat back suggestions from some political commentators - most recently from the New York Times' Tom Friedman - that conservative opposition to President Obama is creating a political climate that may foreshadow attempts of violence against the commander-in-chief.

"Where do these nut jobs come from? Come on, stop this," Steele told CNN's John Roberts on American Morning in direct response to a quote from Friedman's column Wednesday equating the current political environment to that which occurred ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in 1995.

"To make those equations, examples and put that out there that way, to me is just crazy and yeah, I'm sorry, but if you're going to approach this discussion, approach it from a rational position," Steele continued. "[They're] saying, because you disagree with the president on policy, that all of the sudden we're going to make this leap into, you know, assassinations and all this other stuff. I mean, at the height of all this stuff on Bush and people complaining and protesting, and jumping up and down, you didn't have this kind of conversation."

"There are passions that run deep and long on both sides of the aisle," Steele also said. "Don't necessarily jump to the conclusion that, because someone says something vitriolic or hot that's necessarily from the right or the left. It's reflecting deep-seeded frustrations people have."

Steele also criticized accusations that many of the president's critics are driven by race, rather than pure policy disagreements.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Obama is under increasing pressure to decide whether the United States will commit more troops and resources to the conflict in Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, the head of NATO met with the president and endorsed Obama's plan to fine-tune the strategy for Afghanistan before deciding on whether to deploy more troops.

"I agree with President Obama in his approach: strategy first, then resources," Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after meeting with Obama at the White House.

The meeting comes a day before Obama is scheduled to discuss Afghanistan strategy with his national security team.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs backed up Rasmussen's assessment.

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(CNN) - With less than five weeks before Election Day, a new poll suggests that New Jersey's gubernatorial race is tightening up.

Governor Jon Corzine trails Republican challenger Chris Christie by four points, according to a Quinnipiac University survey of New Jersey residents likely to vote in the November 3 election.

Forty-three percent of people questioned in the poll, released Tuesday morning, back Christie - the former federal prosecutor in New Jersey - with 39 percent supporting Corzine - the Democratic incumbent who's fighting for a second term as governor - and 12 percent supporting Independent candidate Christopher Daggett.

Six percent are undecided.

The four point lead for Christie is within the survey's sampling error, and his lead is down from a ten point margin in Quinnipiac's most recent poll conducted a month ago.

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