Did you feel that disturbance in The Force? The one that took place about 3:35 this afternoon?

At 3:20 p.m., Independent Bernard Sanders of Vermont -- acting as the presiding officer of the Senate -- called a vote on a point of order against the health care overhaul bill.

Fifteen minutes later, Sanders closed the vote, and the matter was done. The Republicans finally got the vote they've been needing all year long.

Every Senate Democrat (plus the two Independents, Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and Sanders) went on record declaring that the so-called individual mandate that is the heart of the health care bill -- that is, an unprecedented federal mandate that requires individuals to purchase a product in the private market, on pain of taxation should they choose to disobey -- does not violate the Constitution.

Normally, when a member of the minority offers an amendment to a spending bill, it's routine for his fellow minority party members to support the amendment, while the members of the majority party vote it down.

What's fun is to examine the rebels -- the members who cross party lines to cast votes against their fellow party members -- to see if you can figure out why.

This afternoon, on the Transportation-HUD appropriations bill, the Senate voted on an amendment by conservative South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint "to limit the use of funds for the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria Airport."

That, you may recall, is the airport where there are more federally funded employees and buildings than there are daily passengers -- which isn't difficult, given that it has only three regularly scheduled flights per day.

In other words, DeMint forced the Senate to vote whether the Murtha Airport would receive more government funds (at least from the Transportation-HUD appropriation bill) than the $800,000 in stimulus package funds it received earlier this year.

Not surprisingly, the amendment was defeated, 43-53.

Also not surprisingly, almost every Republican voted for the amendment, and almost every Democrat voted against it.

So the fun part is figuring out the motivation behind the Republicans who voted against it and the Democrats who voted for it.

"If at first you don't succeed ... wait two decades for a new Congress, and then try again."

If that credo isn't matted, framed, and hanging on the office wall of Rep. John P. Murtha, it should be.

On July 22, Murtha's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee reported out a $636 billion appropriations bill that included funding for new airplanes in which the Air Force could ferry Members of Congress around the world.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs suggested Tuesday morning that angry protesters showing up at the town hall meetings held by members of Congess are in fact some kind of manufactured opposition, presumably being driven not by their opposition to the Democrats’ plans for health care overhaul, but instead by their service to some corporate master.

“I hope people will take a jaundiced eye to what is clearly the Astroturf nature of grass-roots lobbying,” Gibbs said in this morning’s gaggle. “The Brooks Brothers brigade … appear to have rented a similar bus and are appearing together at town hall meetings throughout the country.”

House and Senate Democratic leaders are sending members home for the August break equipped with information on health care overhaul efforts to share with constituents. The talking-points cards list faults of the current system, benefits of the proposed plan and the plan’s effect on specific districts. Members have been encouraged to hold town hall meetings to discuss the issue.

How long will it be before Gibbs is linking his “Manufactured Opposition Theory” to the story of Jack Bonner and forged letters of opposition to the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade climate change bill?

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"It's not about the policies or the politics, and it's certainly not about the principles. It's about power, and it has been for a long time."

So writes Jim Geraghty in this piece for National Review Online, explaining what motivates our 44th President.

As one who will forever bear, with Steve Schmidt, the responsibility for having to run a general election campaign against Obama -- and the concomitant frustration in trying to figure him out, and the ignominy of a wipeout at the polls -- I can attest first-hand to the depth of Geraghty's perception. It's dead on.

"The federal government is too big, takes too much of our money, and makes too many of our decisions. If Republicans can't agree on that, elections are the least of our problems."

So says South Carolina's junior senator, Jim DeMint, in this Saturday op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.

In the wake of last week's defection by Sen. Arlen Specter and the passing of Jack Kemp, DeMint's piece is a good way for conservatives to start the week.