The Queen is Dead, Long Live the King

Hillary's influence from here on out is going to be pretty much nil.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's dream of overhauling the country's health-care system as the steward of a new Senate subcommittee has reportedly flatlined.

The New York senator had made health-care reform the centerpiece of her presidential campaign. After bowing out of the race, Clinton pushed fellow Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, to create a special health subcommittee for her to head.

But the Massachusetts senator, who's battling brain cancer, has shot down that idea - all but dashing any hope Clinton had of pinning her legacy to universal coverage.

Michael Myers, Kennedy's staff director on the committee, ended any speculation by telling the trade publication Inside Health Policy that Clinton would not chair a subcommittee. Kennedy will instead hold health-care proceedings at the full committee level, Myers said.