With this repeal, the process is set in motion to, for the first time in U.S. history, allow gays to serve openly in the military without having to hide their sexual orientation. Under President Bill Clinton‘s “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, men and women in service were required to stay silent about their sexuality, and [...]

It seems like not many in Washington are embracing the holiday spirits, though in the most disturbing ways. To wit: the effort to paint Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as the Grinch who will steal Christmas did not sit well with Reid, and earlier today he hurled a few verbal lumps of coal in the direction of his Republican colleagues.

Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher pressed Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on whether Virginia federal judge Henry Hudson, a Bush-appointee had a conflict of interest that should have prevented him from deciding yesterday’s healthcare case. The alleged conflict relates to the judge’s investment in a Republican consulting firm that worked against health care reform. Gibbs, surprised at how narrowly the case was decided was confident the decision would have “no practical impact at all as states move forward in . . . implementing the law that Congress passed and the President signed.”

Ron Paul is nothing if not an conservative iconoclast. The Texas Republican House Representative, with deep libertarian roots is taking a counter-intuitive departure from the traditional and established GOP rhetoric on the issue of WikiLeaks. In an impassioned speech on the U.S. House floor, Paul likened the attack on Julian Assange to “killing the messenger for bringing bad news” before providing nine provocative questions for Americans to consider.

With speculation about Republican candidates for President running wild, likely candidate Newt Gingrich appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal and declared that the Republican candidates for President should organize the terms of the debates and not the news media. He then took specific shots at MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann who each have hosted election night coverage despite a clear and evident political point-of-view. Updated

Part of the Republican surge this year stemmed from the GOP’s censure of President Obama—who once promised to make his administration to be the “most open and transparent in history”—for not being open and transparent enough, particularly regarding healthcare reform. As such, C-SPAN’s current proposal to presumptive House Speaker John Boehner should be an offer Republicans can’t refuse: an increase in the number and scope of press cameras in the House chamber.

Maybe Ed Schultz was right about being able to attract more people than Glenn Beck: organizers of today’s “One Nation Together Rally” are claiming that, based on a “satellite image,” there are definitively more people on the Washington Mall today than there were on the 29th of August. Congratulations, liberals! Except “Restoring Honor” was on the 28th.

MSNBC host Ed Schultz once received attention for claiming he easily could put together a rally as large as Glenn Beck‘s “Restoring Honor” rally. Today his dream has come true, sort of, as he received an invitation to address the liberal “One Nation Working Together” rally. Today was all about “the people” and how now “is a time to fight for America.”

Well, can you blame him? Barrett Travis, the towheaded grandson of Rep. Ted Poe, clearly went to Congress expecting to see flashy celebrities like Stephen Colbert and all he got were long speeches on domestic violence awareness. Still, watching Travis’ epic battle with the sand man while his grandfather gives his floor speech makes for one of the most charming videos of the week.

President Barack Obama spoke to Generation 44, a group of under-40 supporters, tonight in Washington. CSPAN televised the proceedings, which proved that Obama still has his fierce supporters – and still has a fierce way with words, when he summons it.

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith was the TV news representative on a panel yesterday about Hurricane Katrina, from the Newseum in Washington D.C.

He reflected on the story five years later – the coverage and who was responsible.

C-SPAN seems to be the outlet of choice for callers who want to share their extreme opinions with the rest of the world. This morning, a caller stated he agreed with Helen Thomas, whose controversial remarks about Jews and Palestine last week caused her to announce her retirement today.

While the media brings up all the pros and potential cons to the Elena Kagan Supreme Court nomination, one thing the entire media is likely to embrace is her take on cameras in the courtroom.

The media, right and left, has always been a fan of access – and the Supreme Court is one courtroom where no camera has gone before. Maybe Kagan will change that.

Let’s just say Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has seen better days. While it wasn’t as amusing as Sen. Carl Levin’s profane questioning earlier today, Sen. John McCain’s interrogation of the Wall Street leader was just as uncomfortable, at least for Blankfein.

C-SPAN and their practice of airing primarily unscreened callers completely live made headlines on Monday when “Bill from St. Paul” called in to complain about the number of black callers. What shocked people was that host Bill Scanlan let him get through his entire racist rant. Congress.org posted an interview they did with Brian Lamb, the founder and CEO of C-SPAN, who made it clear that the network is not going to change their screening process (they only keep out callers who are intoxicated, incoherent, or call too frequently) any time soon.

Jon Stewart and The Daily Show took on the C-SPAN caller last night who was sick of hearing so many black people and wanted the network to change it’s name “from C-SPAN to Black-SPAN.”

But it wasn’t so much the caller that Stewart had a problem with – it was the reaction (or, non-reaction) of the host.

C-SPAN has completed arguably the most exciting academic task since the founding of Wikipedia: they have uploaded 23 years of their video archives to a free, user-friendly database online. It’s a landmark in government transparency and a godsend to anyone embarking on an American history research project.

We found this amazing video via Chuck Todd, and we’re just saying…if C-Span and C-Span.org took more of WWE approach to their programming, their target demo would drop 20 years, stat. Health Care Summit FTW!

When Barack Obama‘s campaign pledge of a transparent and C-SPAN covered debate over health care reform failed to materialize, he was fairly pilloried by both right and left-wing critics. Since then, he’s invited party leaders – and C-SPAN cameras – for a White House health care negotiation. Last night House Minority leader John Boehner sat down with Greta Van Susteren to discuss this and sounded pretty skeptical of the political theater.

Through a letter addressed to Henry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb is requesting that all “important negotiations” in reconciling the differences between the House and be opened up to C-SPAN’s cameras. Update – White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about this today; view video of his response after the jump:

“Bunny from Kansas” called in to C-SPAN yesterday morning, angered by the passage of Health Care through the Senate — and she did something about it. “I am so disappointed. I have taken my Christmas tree down, I have taken my Christmas wreath off my house. I have taken all the lights down,” she told [...]

Yesterday, Representative Joe Barton, known to his critics as “Smokey Joe” for his staunchly free-market, anti-regulation stance on corporate pollution, went on C-SPAN to discuss … wait for it … Climategate. The Climategate affair, and the public skepticism about man-made global warming that it has helped produce, have to be a small triumph for a man who has been a staunch skeptic since before it was fashionable.

Someone tweeted the link to this AP story this morning (I don’t remember who), and wondered if Fox News would be reporting this. The headline is “Police: ACORN worker in video reported couple.”

On C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis fielded a call from a viewer asking about the furor surrounding undercover videographer James Okeefe‘s recent revelations. While she reiterated that the actions of the fired ACORN employees were inexcusable, she went on to say that O’Keefe and his partner were thrown out of “dozens” of ACORN offices.