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• Jim King career in photos
• Jim King in his own words
• Sign the guest book for Jim King

Florida Senate leader Jim King dies

TALLAHASSEE -- The voice of the Florida Senate is gone.

Sen. Jim King, the longtime Republican legislator whose legacy was giving Floridians the right to refuse life-prolonging medical care, passed away Sunday. His death came less than three months after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the same disease that took his father. He was 69.

With his stout presence, easygoing manner and penchant for distilling complex issues to quotable one-liners, King was one of the most popular members of the Legislature for almost three decades. His death silences the voice of a Republican who was strongly pro-business on fiscal issues but moderate on social matters such as abortion. King's most high-profile vote against party lines came in 2005, when he and nine other Republicans sided with Democrats to defeat the measure aimed at keeping the Clearwater woman Terri Schiavo alive with a feeding tube.

GOP: Obama must change if he wants bipartisanship

BALTIMORE — President Barack Obama will speak Friday to Republicans from the House of Representatives, who voiced skepticism Thursday about his call for bipartisanship in his State of the Union address and vowed to continue opposing his agenda unless he _ not they _ changes course.

On the opening day Thursday of a two-day House GOP retreat in Baltimore, Republican leaders said that Obama must do more than invite them to the White House, offer to cut capital gains taxes for small businesses and sing the praises of offshore drilling and nuclear energy to get their cooperation on contentious issues such as health care.

“We’re going to continue to go down the same path this year,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said before the retreat opened. “We’re going to look for common ground, but we’re not going to roll over on our principles.”

Senate Democrats muster all 60 votes one last time

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called for more civility and bipartisanship at a prayer breakfast on Thursday, but Congress kept to its old ways with a party-line Senate vote on a long-stalled administration nominee and partisan barbs after another stalled nominee was overwhelmingly approved.

Speaking at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, Obama renewed the plea for common ground between the White House and congressional Democrats and Republicans that he made at a retreat of House Republicans last week.

"At times, it seems like we're unable to listen to one another; to have at once a serious and civil debate," Obama said. "It leaves each side little room to negotiate with the other. It makes politics an all-or nothing sport, where one side is either always right or always wrong, when, in reality, neither side has a monopoly on the truth."

Franken wins, but don't get all excited about those 60 votes

WASHINGTON — Al Franken's victory in the long-contested Minnesota U.S. Senate race means that Democrats will control 60 Senate seats for the first time in 30 years, but they'll still face obstacles to passing major legislation.

On paper, the party now has the muscle to block any Republican filibuster, since it takes 60 votes under Senate rules to end debate and move to a final vote. However, two key Democratic senators are battling serious illnesses, two others are independents who caucus with the party but aren't sure votes with the majority, and all senators have diverse constituencies that sometimes lead them to break ranks with their parties.

As a result, it's unlikely that the 58-year-old Harvard-educated comedian and now senator-elect will make a dramatic difference this year as his party and the White House fight to overhaul health care, limit carbon emissions and pass other major legislation.

Ted Kennedy up close

Friends and colleagues recall political and personal moments with the senator.

GREGORY B. CRAIG

Former foreign policy adviser to Kennedy; White House counsel to President Obama