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In recent days, Republican leaders have scored a series of political victories in their eternal quest for tort reform. Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) told Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) that an onerous package of malpractice curbs he championed could save the government an estimated $54 billion over 10 years. That came on the heels of President Obama's latest offer to support limited tort reform as an olive branch to recalcitrant Republicans balking at his health care proposals, including funding for a $25 million pilot program.

But largely overlooked in the heated discussions of damage award caps, special health courts, expert panels and national compensation schedules is the inescapable truth that the medical malpractice system has only a negligible impact on overall American health care costs. Republican horror stories of a torrent of baseless malpractice suits producing "jackpot justice" that fuels rising premiums for physicians and patients alike while driving doctors from practice simply don't comport with reality. The overstated, overblown, over the top and often outright false GOP claims suggest that the Republicans' real target is not the flawed American malpractice system, but instead the nation's trial lawyers whose campaign contributions help bankroll the Democratic Party.

Here, then, is a look at Republican Malpractice Myths:

1. An Explosion of Malpractice Litigation
2. A System Plagued by Frivolous Lawsuits
3. Rising Damage Awards Key to Higher Malpractice Premiums
4. Rising Malpractice Insurance Rates Driving Doctors from Practice
5. Medical Malpractice Reform Would Save U.S. $200 Billion Annually
6. Defensive Medicine Costs $200 Billion a Year

For the details and data behind each, continue reading.

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(h/t David)

Senate Minority Whip Sen. John Kyl expressed "regret" for remarks made by a fellow Republican senator on health care reform Sunday. Sen. Jim DeMint was quote by Politico as saying "If we are able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

Sen. John Kyl told Fox News' Brett Baier that those remarks were "unfortunate." "I don't agree with that language," he said. But, tellingly, he didn't disagree with the sentiments, his weasel words trying to deflect the political calculus of it all:

BAIER: Senator, your colleague from South Carolina, Jim DeMint said this this week: “If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”

Your colleague from Oklahoma, Sen. Jim Inhofe said this: “We can stall the Democratic effort on health reform. We can stall it. And that’s going to be a huge gain for those of us who want to turn this thing over in the 2010 election.”

Senator Kyl, do you agree with them?

KYL: I don’t agree with that kind of language. I know what Jim DeMint has said is he wanted to break the momentum of the inevitability of passing these liberal health care bills. They said we had to pass stimulus and do it immediately or else the economy would see 10% or 8% unemployment, it’s now gone to 10%. And what we’re saying is slow this down, so that we don’t do…we don’t make another bad mistake here. But I do think that because the language has political implications, it’s unfortunate. Both sides talk about the politics of these issues. I don’t think we ought to be focused on that.

Kyl is nothing but a big, fat liar. OF COURSE they're speaking of political implications, because that's their focus. They don't care about the 76% of Americans who want health care reform. They don't care about the 145,000 Americans who will lose their health insurance over the month of August alone. Plain and simple: They don't care about Americans.

What they DO care about is regaining a majority again to stymie any success Obama might have in his first term in office, much like Newt Gingrich and his Contract On For America did in 1994. This is ALL about politics for the republicans and Kyl knows it. At least DeMint and Inhofe have the intellectual honesty to admit it.

"President" Newt Gingrich on Da Ali G Show

Oh look, President Newt Gingrich is on the Sunday shows. Again. Gosh, I'm so glad that the media is around to tell us just who embodies the change for which we voted. And looking around, it's no better on any other show: former Bush attorney Ed Gillespie on This Week, former governor Mitt Romney on Fox News and every single milquetoasty DINO booked (I'm looking at you, Feinstein and Specter) is paired with a camera-hogging, sound-byte ready (if fact-negligible) Republican like John Kyl, Mitch McConnell or Lindsey Graham. Hello: reality-based community to media--it's 2009, not 2000. Catch the hell up already.

ABC's "This Week" - Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Cornyn, R-Texas; Ed Gillespie, former Bush White House counselor.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Pre-empted for the French Open.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Gloria Borger, Dan Rather, John Heilemann, Katty Kay. Topics: Has President Obama solidified a lasting majority for the Democratic Party? How should Republicans respond to Obama, and who are their promising stars? Meter questions: Will Senate Republicans attack Sonia Sotomayor as a liberal or show deference to her? YES: 10 NO: 2; Is Obama winning the national security policy debate with Cheney? YES: 11 No: 1.

CNN's "State of the Union/Reliable Sources" - Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Gillespie; Sameh Shoukry, Egypt's ambassador to the U.S.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - In a speech in Cairo this Thursday, President Obama called for a "new beginning" for relations between the U.S. and the Muslim world. Fareed brings together a panel of experts from around the Muslim world and the region to react to and analyze the speech...and what it means for U.S./Arab relations. Plus, author Michael Lewis on the economic crisis and the future of Wall Street.

"Fox News Sunday" - Sens. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.

So, what's catching your eye this morning?

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Rep. Paul Ryan told Fox's Chris Wallace that Republicans in the House and Senate would have a hard time blocking President Obama's budget. "You can't stop this in the House. It is a complete majority rule. It will be very difficult to stop this in the Senate," he said.

Republicans in the House will lobby conservative Democrats to vote against the budget. Ryan said, "If you can get a few Democrats to turn, then I think you can slow this down. If not, I'm not sure you can."

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Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) told Fox's Chris Wallace that Sen. Joe Lieberman's campaigning for the Republican president candidate and some Republican Senators was not acceptable behavior for a someone with a Democratic Chairmanship. "The question is, is that acceptable? The answer is no," said Dorgan

Dorgan said that Democrats will meet next week to vote on whether Lieberman will be allowed to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.

Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) told Chris Wallace that Republicans would welcome Lieberman into their caucus. Dorgan pointed out that Democrats have no intention of kicking Lieberman out of the Democratic caucus.