Washington in 60 Seconds: Palin's Wonkish Turn; Kerry Calls for Surge

* This week, the Senate will debate a solution to falling reimbursement rates for doctors with Medicare patients. The Washington Post hammers President Obama and Harry Reid for trying to remove the problem from the health care debate. "A president who says that he is serious about dealing with the dire fiscal picture cannot credibly begin by charging this one to the national credit card, with no concern for the later generations who will have to pay the bill.

* The New York Times writes about Sen. John Kerry's (D-Mass.) decision over the weekend to break with leading Democrats and support a surge of troops in Afghanistan. Kerry went to the country over the weekend.

* Rudy Giuliani hit the campaign trail for New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg this weekend, but The New York Post reports the former mayor's cryptic pitch to give Bloomberg a third term included warnings that without Bloomberg, the city night be as bad as the days before Giuliani was mayor -- "and you know exactly what I'm talking about."

* If you thought access to easy money went away with the recession, think again, says The Washington Times. The paper looks into mortgages from the Federal Housing Administration and called the government-backed loans "the new subprimes," and quotes one mortgage expert saying, "The FHA's portfolio is exploding and the taxpayer is now on the hook for 100 percent of the losses."

* The Wall Street Journal names the winners and losers in health care reform so far. Drug companies will get millions of new, newly insured customers, while the insurance companies that pay for all of those drugs may be taking it on the chin. One executive says the higher number of insured means "a brand-new market for [us] to serve."

* And finally, Politico writes up Sarah Palin's latest Facebook update, which critiques the Finance Committee's markup of health care reform. Politico also notes that the comments sound suspiciously wonkish after Palin's dire Facebook "death panel" warnings this summer.