It’s with mixed emotions that I bid farewell to the thrilling role of Managing Editor at Mediaite. While I am very excited about my new opportunity on the digital side of corporate media behemoth Clear Channel (the details of which will be forthcoming in the next week or so), I am sad to walk away from this labor of love, overseeing an influential and successful site and playing the part of post-modern disc jockey to the daily political news narratives that makes up the media zeitgeist.

Ever since a New York magazine cover story ran in late October, it was only a matter of time before cable news caught up with a potentially catastrophic angle to Mitt Romney‘s presidential campaign. The feature length article portrayed Romney as part of “the 1%” who made much of his wealth came as a result of Bain Capital’s company re-orgs…that reportedly led to a great number of job losses. With the Iowa caucus just a week away, it was only a matter of time before this story got the cable news Klieg lights.

So this happened yesterday. Not much is known about the following video, except that it has just begun to go viral. Why? Well it appears that a young woman did not care for one of her Christmas presents, Ron Paul‘s Liberty Defined. In fact, after reading a portion of the book in which the GOP presidential candidate refers to Israel as an “apartheid state,” the young woman was moved to tears of disappointment. A Christmas miracle!

Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) has served the state of Indiana in six consecutive terms in the U.S. Senate. While hard core conservatives may derisively point to his willingness to work with his ideological foes across the aisle, Lugar is a well respected member of congress recognized for his tough but well informed positions on U.S. foreign policy. Still, he finds himself in battle with some home-grown Tea Party candidates for his Senate seat, which Lugar took aim at during a sit down with CNN’s Candy Crowley.

It seems Sarah Silverman came across The Hollywood Reporter‘s Top Women issue. And her response is in song, of course.

“You won’t believe it, I just read an incredible article about women…who have…JOBS!” Needless to say, Silverman is less than impressed by an issue of a magazine devoted to the most powerful women in Hollywood — and she’s tweeted a whole video about it. Make of that what you will.

We get that people use their clothing to make statements. But we don’t like this one, not one little bit.

We don’t know who, and we don’t know exactly where or when, either, but someone made a simple men’s shirt and used a photo of the World Trade Center towers exploding on September 11, 2011 as a print. We hate to assume that this shirt in particular was meant to glorify the moment, which still haunts and angers so many people all over the world, but we can’t imagine that the shirt was made in tribute to those lost in the attacks, either.

KTLA’s Henry DiCarlo has had it with the lack of communications at the LA-based local news outlet and he isn’t afraid to air some dirty laundry on live television. To wit: a recent weather segment appeared to be cut short after he also interviewed some dude…DiCarlo got pissed and basically said as much during a live shot. Related: slow news Thursday!

With the Iowa caucus just scant two weeks away, tensions are running high. During a campaign appearance at a grocery store yesterday, on-again, off-again GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich was approached by a seemingly innocuous supporter, who instead turned out to be something of pretty vocal critic. The grinning man got Gingrich’s attention with “You know something?” before following with “you’re a f*cking a**hole.”

France’s woman of the year is…Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s wife?

Strauss-Kahn’s wife Anne Sinclair stood by her husband (mostly) as he was accused of sexual assault and involvement in prostitution rings. Make of that what you will. Sinclair did have her own career as a successful TV personality, but somehow we think her marriage to the former IMF head as he achieved global notoriety is probably what tipped the scales.

While we spend a lot of time writing about powerful women, we also like to hear from those women, in their own words. Today we spoke with Nicole Lapin, CNBC anchor turned financial media entrepreneur. In September, the 27-year-old left her gig as a CNBC anchor to found Nothing But Gold Productions, a new media company that aims to teach young women about the ins and outs of finance. Think of Lapin as your cool tour guide slash interpreter in the world of jargon-y finance. We spoke about why girls don’t dig chatting about money, and taking advice from Sex and the City’s Samantha.

Among other things, the Holiday season means end-of-the-year gift giving, and as such, television viewers receive the gift of promotional appearances from authors looking to hawk their recently penned tomes. Take for example Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, who this morning appeared in enemy territory to sell his recent biography Killing Lincoln on NBC News’ Today Show. This appearance wasn’t all about pushing product, however, as O’Reilly shared his opinion on a number of GOP candidates and their chances on getting elected.

With the Iowa Caucuses just two weeks away, GOP presidential hopefuls are hitting the campaign stops hard. At the end of a stop last night in the town of Decorah, Governor Rick Perry found himself confronted by a 14 year-old girl asking why the Texas governor was so opposed to gays serving in the military (a theme that was front and center in one of his recent campaign ads.) Perry handled the confrontational question calmly, but in a way that is unlikely to bridge the divide between his supporters and his detractors, particularly on the issue of tolerance of Gay Americans.

Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann got into a row last evening during the Iowa Republican debate. Today, the pundits are tripping over each other to see who can cry “sexism!” first. What happened?

Here are the facts: Last night during the debate the two candidates got into a heated argument over abortion. The first candidate accused the other of having an inconsistent track record on the issue. The other, the target of this accusation, smirked and feigned disbelief, before firing back.

For the past three years, I have completely dedicated my life to developing, launching, and managing Mediaite.com. Please forgive the cliche, but it has truly been a labor of love — nearly every single minute has been challenging and rewarding. It is with truly mixed emotions, then, that I announce my plans to step down as Managing Editor, to embark on a very exciting new career chapter at the beginning of next year.

After the holidays, I will begin work in a senior-level position at the NY offices of Clear Channel. The details of my new role will be revealed in a few weeks, but I hope to bring some of the success we’ve enjoyed at Mediaite in terms of relevance, buzz, and creative content to a completely different, significantly broader, and more corporate platform.

Tonight, Part 43 in a 164-part competitive reality series known as the 2012 GOP Presidential Primary. It’s like Survivor in that there is something of a tribal counsel, but it’s also like a soap opera in that characters come and go in mysterious and inexplicable ways. Now, via the magic of streaming Internet video, you can watch it in the comfort of sitting in front of your own computer!

We love a little behind-the-scenes footage — via Twitter, of course. And what was Arianna Huffington up to at her holiday bash?

She worked the whole time! Last week, we learned that Huffington loves country music. This week, we learn that lady literally cannot stop working.

You will recall O’Donnell’s infamous campaign ad in which she spoke to camera and declared “I am not a witch.” So when Mediaite reported that the Tea Party candidate was supporting Romney over Gingrich, Christoper titled his post, quite cleverly, “No ‘Aye’ Of Newt: Christine O’Donnell Endorses Mitt Romney.” In last night’s show, Colbert made the very same joke, declaring “this endorsement proves that she is not a witch because a witch would have gone for the eye of Newt.” Huh.

This bearded dragon is way better at Ant Crusher than the rest of us, and also looks more adorable playing it. To be fair, she’s probably not particularly happy, thinking she’s catching a buffet of ant dinner, only to come back from the screen with nothing on her tongue. It sure is adorable how she keeps looking back up at the person filming, though, even if it is to say, “…the hell is this?”

Joe Amendola, the lawyer for former Penn State assistant coach and accused child rapist Jerry Sandusky, has made what many consider to be some pretty grave missteps in the defense of his client.

GlobeAsia, a leading regional business magazine, wants women to succeed. That’s great! Their aim, however, might have been a bit too… broad.

In an ad for its 2011 Leaders Forum this week, which featured a handful of influential female Indonesian business and government figures, GlobeAsia heralded “the rise of women leaders in Asia,” according to SE Asia Realtime. Okay, nothing wrong so far. But then it included the tagline “From The Bedroom To The Boardroom.” Which is, not surprisingly, generating just the wee-ist bit of controversy. After all, I’d imagine most businesswomen don’t want anyone picturing their skills in the bedroom at this, a most chaste institution we hold dear: the business conference. Creepy.

Well it appears that detente is now over and the “cheesy cable news feud” between Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert has once again heated up. The contentious issue is a recent Colbert report of a Denver area man who sees hidden phalluses in much of the Denver Airport artwork. Interesting story, right? Well Cooper’s AC360 covered the very same story back in May, and recently put Colbert on his “Ridiculist” for not giving CNN credit for their breaking phallus coverage.

Looks as though Ryanair is continuing its vaunted legacy of sensitivity and deference toward women.

About a month ago, I assembled a compendium of awfulness that has defined airline Ryanair’s gender relations (and customer relations, for that matter) over the last, oh, forever.

Senator Patty Murray on the failed supercommittee — and why she thinks the debt crisis could have been helped if more women were in Congress: “We need diversity in the Senate, and we need people who come to the job who really want to make a difference for their country. And when I look out across the country, I see women who understand that… You want the practical answer to why we would get things done? Because we are multi-taskers: We have to pick up the kids and get dinner and, you know, help with the homework and get things done, and we don’t mess around. And so we come into politics the same way: We have a task, it’s hard, but we make decisions, and we get things done.”

When Chelsea Clinton was announced as a contributor to NBC’s news magazine show Rock Center with Brian Williams, there was a mixture of guffawing and curiosity among many media circles. Ms. Clinton is perhaps the least controversial of the Clinton trio, and her closely-guarded private life has always been something that people respected, compared to other famous political progeny eager to cash in on their family name. That has likely contributed to a sense of bewilderment that someone with next to no journalistic chops would get such a plum gig, simply because of her last name.

A Wisconsin based group of Atheists called the Freedom From Religion Foundation have asked a town in Texas to take down a nativity scene that is set up on public property. Last night, a spokesman for that atheist group Dan Barker appeared on Fox Business Network’s Follow the Money, and engaged in a spirited discussion over religion, Christmas and Jesus Christ with host Eric Bolling, which ultimately led to Barker’s abrupt dismissal from the show. It was a “War on Christmas” miracle!