The most powerful three on Capitol Hill

Yesterday, President Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus plan that will hopefully create and save millions of jobs, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, and kick-start the economy.

It wasn't easy. The Republicans in both the House and the Senate fought it tooth and nail. The bill would not have passed in its present form if not for the three moderate Republicans in the Senate who were willing to break party ranks and support a compromise that didn't totally obliterate the original intent of the bill.

With this one big piece of legislation, those three Republican senators -- Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania -- have demonstrated that they will likely control what legislation passes in the 111th Congress.

This makes them arguably the three most powerful people on Capitol Hill.