The Early Word: Revival - NYTimes.com In Today's Times: After sweeping the nominating contests in Colorada, Minnesota and Missouri on Tuesday, Rick Santorum is getting ambitious. Jim Rutenberg and Nicholas Confessore report that Mr. Santorum has plans to expand his reinvigorated campaign operation in the hope of becoming the eventual Republican challenger to President Obama, but he faces obstacles, including his rivals" attacks. For Mitt Romney, the defeats on Tuesday were setbacks that highlighted his vulnerabilities with conservative voters and meant that he will have to focus more on his Republican rivals instead of President Obama as the contest moves to his home state, Michigan, and beyond, Jeff Zeleny writes. Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, Republicans" top negotiator in the upper chamber, is on his way to retirement. But before he can leave, he faces the daunting task of negotiating an extension of the payroll tax cut with President Obama and Democrats, Jonathan Weisman writes. As White House officials sought Wednesday to defuse tension over an administration rule requiring health insurance plans provided by Roman Catholic universities and charities to offer free birth control to women, Republicans in Congress seized the opportunity to respond forcefully, in an attempt to unite their caucus and drive a wedge among Democrats, Jennifer Steinhauer reports. The House is expected to pass a bill Thursday to ban insider trading by members of Congress, despite protests from Democrats that arose after Republicans deleted a provision to regulate "political intelligence," Robert Pear writes. Democrats said they would still support the bill and push for the deleted provision when negotiators meet to work out differences between the House and Senate versions. A look at the list of nonessential projects added to the budget of the Army Corps of Engineers seems to show that lawmakers have found their way around a self-imposed ban on earmarks, Ron Nixon writes. Happening in Washington: Mario Monti, the prime minister of Italy, will give a speech at noon at the Peterson Institute, before meeting with President Obama later in the afternoon at the White House. At noon, Douglas Elmendorf, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, will discuss the long-term outlook for the federal budget at the National Economists Club. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader; House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio; and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky are among the speakers Thursday at the annual convention of the Conservative Political Action Conference. Economic data expected includes weekly jobless claims (8:30 a.m.), December wholesale inventories (10) and weekly mortgage rates (10).