Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi leave a Democratic Caucus meeting Wednesday. Mr. Biden has made personal pleas to both the Senate and House Democratic caucuses. (Associated Press)
U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous (left) walks with his attorney, Jonathan Turley, on Capitol Hill on Wednesday after the Senate voted on his impeachment. He was removed from the bench. (Associated Press)
"We've got to have the leaders of the House and the Senate, Republican and Democrat, and the president or his representatives at the table," said Sen. Kent Conrad. (Associated Press)
Republican Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., arrives for a rare Saturday lame duck session of the U.S. Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2010. The Senate agenda features a pair of votes: one on a proposal to extend all expiring tax cuts on individuals with incomes of less than $200,000 a year and married couples making less than $250,000; the other to renew them for all tax filers with incomes of less than $1 million. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)
** FILE ** The Senate investigations subcommittee's ranking Republican, Sen. Tom Coburn, questions a witness on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, April 27, 2010, during the subcommittee's hearing on Goldman Sachs and the financial crisis. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In this Nov. 9, 2010 file photo, Republican Joe Miller speaks with reporters during a press conference in Juneau, Alaska. Alaska's bitterly contested Senate election went to state court Monday, Nov. 22, 2010, when Mr. Miller sued the state over the way write-in ballots for his GOP rival have been counted. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
Republican candidate Joe Miller speaks with reporters during a news conference Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010, in Juneau, Alaska. Miller sued Tuesday to keep the state from using discretion in counting write-in ballots in Alaska's hotly contested Senate race, setting off what could become a drawn-out legal battle. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
FILE - In this Oct. 28, 2010, file photo, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin campaigns for Senate candidate Joe Miller, left in Anchorage, Alaska. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's stunning write-in victory was a political poke in the eye to Alaska's other favorite daughter, Sarah Palin. (AP Photo/Rob Stapleton)
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) Alaska, center, is greeted by her sister Carol Sturgelewski, left, upon her arrival at Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010. Murkowski became the first Senate candidate in more than 50 years to win a write-in campaign. The victory is a remarkable comeback for Murkowski, who lost to political newcomer Joe Miller in the GOP primary, and a humbling moment for Sara Palin, the former Alaska governor, 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate and Murkowski nemesis whose support was not enough to get Miller through an election in her own backyard. (AP Photo/Michael Dinneen)
