From this morning's Earlybird:

• "With a Senate showdown looming, the politically potent AARP rode to the rescue of Democrats on Wednesday, supporting $460 billion in Medicare cuts to help pay for landmark health care legislation," AP reports. "As Republicans pressed to restore the cuts, AARP said Democrats merely were recommending elimination of waste and inefficiency within the giant health care program for seniors."

• "The trade group that represents the makers of sugar beverages like soft drinks, sports and energy drinks... spent more than $7 million in just three months this summer and early fall lobbying Congress as it fought a proposed tax on its products to help pay for health care," AP reports. It's "a prime example of 'defensive lobbying' -- when trade associations and high-priced lobbyists gear up to protect their members and clients from costly action by Congress, even if there's little chance it will ever happen."

• "Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a darling of the Tea Party crowd, credited that movement with blocking Democratic health care reform efforts and predicted the conservative activists behind the movement could ultimately thwart the passage of that bill and others," Politico reports.