NPR: She made Sen. Max Baucus's day, and maybe his summer and fall, too. The Finance chairman finally has a Republican vote to show for his deliberate and compromise-laden approach to remaking the health system. "When history calls, history calls," she said.

NYT Prescriptions Blog: Senator Baucus has a big smile as he addresses Senator Kerry. He must feel that his lengthy efforts have been rewarded by winning Senator Snowe’s support; think how grim this would look if she had gone the other way.

WP The Fix: Snowe's support for the bill means that Democrats can afford to lose one of their own and still have the 60 votes they need to break filibusters and bring the legislation to the floor. That means that someone -- someone like Ben Nelson, perhaps -- may be able to vote "no" without bringing the entire health care reform process to a grinding halt.

WSJ: Clinching the vote of Ms. Snowe was a huge victory for Democrats, who spent months trying to win bipartisan support for the bill. "Is this bill all that I would want?" she asked the panel earlier Tuesday. "Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls."

NYP: The committee approval marked a personal victory for Baucus. Four other congressional committees finished their work before August, and for months all eyes had been on the Finance panel, whose moderate makeup most closely resembles the Senate as a whole.