Well, finally! It took them practically forever, but the Republicans have saved America and started a great upward economic swing. At least, that’s what an email sent by Eric Cantor’s team to reporters this morning says. However, some of those reporters have taken the time to look into the emails claims and aren’t entirely convinced.

James Fallows of the Atlantic and Ben Smith of Politico are both covering the “Chinese Professor” attack ad from Citizens Against Government Waste (video below).

That was fast. Faisal Shahzad, the so-called Times Sq. Bomber who (bunglingly) attempted to blow up an SUV in Times Sq. back in May was convicted to like in prison this morning after pleading guilty to the charges.

Politico’s Ben Smith is reporting that Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp., parent company of Fox News, donated $1 million to Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby that supports Republican candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.

Not that long ago stories were circling that Glenn Beck et al. were making the GOP nervous with their uber-popular and polemic talk. Those stories have mainly disappeared as the reality of who holds the power in the conservative party has become all too apparent (GOPers think twice these days before opposing them), but now it seems some members of the Democrats might be suffering similar fears about Jon Stewart.

Brian Ries at The Daily Beast has penned an interesting piece on the low level of discourse in the comments section of many political blogs and whether or not it’s representative of the nation’s current political discourse. Case in point: Ben Smith‘s Politico blog. (Did you all think I was talking about ours?)

Why is President Obama redecorating the Oval Office when the nation’s economy is so bad? Is the question I am anticipating at least one or two cablers to run with today. Whilst on vacation Obama apparently had the Oval Office redone. Including a carpet featuring famous presidential quotes. So who made the cut?

Most people accused of kidnapping a co-ed in 1983, forcing her to take bong rips, and subsequently making her pray to a presumably pot-inspired deity named Aqua Buddha would want to take advantage of every opportunity presented to them to clear their name. Rand Paul is not one of those people.

Rand Paul may belong to the last generation of politicians who have to be worried about their college transgressions. By the time the current generation starts running for office every stupid thing they’ve ever done will have been documented on Facebook and cease to have meaning. In the meantime, a new GQ profile on Rand Paul may prove to be disruptive to his current campaign for Senate.

Apparently Maureen Dowd has grown tired of calling President Obama a girl. This week Obama’s problem is a a black one. Again. It must be said that, if nothing else, MoDo is brilliant at taking the week’s news and shaping it into a catchy talking point that will dominate the Sunday shows and at least a few days of morning shows in the week to come.

This is interesting. Sarah Palin posted a long Facebook note late Tuesday night continuing her recent campaign advocating (refudiating) against the building of the Ground Zero mosque. But now it appears to have been erased and no explanatory note for its absence has been added.**

Is the Civil Rights Commission investigation into allegations of voter intimidation against the New Black Panther Party merely an excuse for the GOP to attempt to topple the Obama administration? That’s what Abigail Thernstrom, the Vice Chair of the Civil Rights Commission — the very commission charged with investigating the charges — thinks.

If this ad were not so utterly offensive I imagine CBS and NBC would find themselves the latest target of liberal media elite accusations from the right. As it is, it’s hard to argue with the networks’ decision not to air this spot. It is pretty appalling.

Real estate and media mogul, and one-time potential politician Mort Zuckerman‘s claim on Fox News yesterday that he helped write one of President Barack Obama‘s speeches appears to be falling apart at a rather quick pace.

Here is the latest update in the battle between Sarah Palin and new next-door-neighbor journalist Joe McGinniss. First up, apparently Sarah Palin’s former neighbors are not as neighborly as they seemed. McGinniss son passed on this email to Ben Smith: “”A woman was renting her house and sought out the author because the Palins had crossed her (owed her money for renovations she had done at their request and never paid her for).” It gets better.

Controversy: It’s what’s for dinner!

As an appetizer for this weekend’s White House Correspondents Association dinner, Politico serves up a sprawling buffet of  White House versus the press coverage, consisting mostly of leftovers. It’s hard to fault them, since I was about to do the exact same thing, but this gives me a great excuse to get a few things off my chest

Here in Washington, we don’t get the daily glory of the New York Post to keep us on our hyperbolic, pun-driven toes when it comes to headlines. However, we do have one source of joy, and it comes courtesy of one of the free dailies that you’ll see commuters reading on weekday mornings: The Washington Examiner.

If Politico’s Mike Allen is the “most popular boy” after a glowing profile by Mark Leibovich in the New York Times Magazine hit the virtual street today, then the reaction to the piece by inside-the-beltway journalists represents the reaction of the AV club and, well, the yearbook staff: we hate him.

Interesting. On last night’s show Rachel Maddow opted not to cover the DADT demonstrations at the White House yesterday, despite the police’s stunning decision to remove the White House Press from the scene. Instead she opted to spend ten minutes on lightly attended gun rallies that took place in and around Washington D.C. on Monday to mark Patriot’s Day (also, the anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing).

President Obama would like you to know that the health care bill passed and, contrary to the prediction of….many, it was not followed by Armageddon. Obama addressed a rally in Iowa this afternoon where he gently mocked the overheated rhetoric that flooded the airwaves the last few weeks: “So after I signed the bill I look around to see if there were any asteroids falling…Turns out it was a nice day.”

Politico got its hands on a confidential party fundraising presentation from the Republican National Committee: Is Glenn Beck secretly running the RNC? There is no mention of “progressives” or secret Maoists in the report but it’s hard to look at the images and not conclude that someone in the RNC is a fan of Mr. Beck and his (often fear-mongering) chalkboard!

Here’s an interesting take on the current David Paterson saga (and honestly…this has become the definition of a saga) from Ben Smith at Politico. Short version: David Paterson is to Eliot Spitzer what Sarah Palin was to John McCain. Except that New York State would be much luckier to have Palin.

Anyone else feel like New York politics has turned into some sort of evil game of roulette? With yesterday’s news that Harold Ford would not be throwing his hat in the New York senate ring comes a whole new round of gaming who might be willing to give it a shot. Enter Daily News and US News & World Report publisher Mort Zuckerman. Even the New York Post thinks this is a good idea.

Time to add another scalp to Glenn Beck’s collection? ACORN revealed today it “is in the process of dissolving its national structure” and that state and local chapters will split off from the national group. So, is this a victory for Beck and Breitbart et al.? Maybe, maybe not.

It’s official, Sarah Palin has managed to start another media fire storm with her Facebook page posting on the matter (death panels, the politically correct version?) and it doesn’t look like it’s going to simmer down soon. If every public figure who uses the term is to be fired, Palin may have a long list on her hands. Also, she may want us to turn in France.