The woman who interrupted the reading of the US Constitution on the floor of the House of Representatives Thursday to shout “birther” protestations has now been identified, by Capitol Police, as Theresa Cao, a colorful DC resident who often haunts the sidewalks of Pennsylvania ave outside the White House.

As it turns out, I knew her when. Almost exactly a year ago, I ran into TC, and videotaped a brief interview that I never ended up using. Here, for the first time, is that interview, and the story of our encounter.

On CNBC’s Squawk Box Thursday, Rick Santelli ranted about members of Congress–and members of the media–who’ve criticized the reading of the Constitution on the floor of the House of Representatives. In an amazing display of sarcasm, Santelli went off on the critics–including The New York Times–who’ve objected to the reading of the Constitution as either too expensive or too self-indulgent.

The Republicans’ dueling document obsessions collided on the floor of the House of Representatives today, as a screaming “birther” in the gallery interrupted the reading of the US Constitution. We’ve got video of the outburst, plus what might be a comment by the alleged birther, from The Hill.

Man, people have not been having an easy time expressing their thoughts on TV these days. This morning Ezra Klein was on MSNBC trying to elaborate the many ways that the GOP plan of reading the Constitution aloud in Congress was but “a gimmick.” However, in many people’s views, his comments were boiled down to the Constitution being “confusing” and “nonbinding.” Like Professor Melissa Harris-Perry before him, Klein has taken to the Internet to clarify his statement.

During a feisty debate against her Democratic foe Christ Coons, Deleware’s GOP senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell made some news when she questioned the separation of church and state and the U.S. Constitution. Last night Anderson Cooper addressed this, and in an uncharacteristically harsh way, chided the candidate for getting a lot of her facts wrong.

Oy, this so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” issue is vexing. So much debate, rhetoric, angst, grandstanding, outrage, outrage over the outrage, op-ed writing, pundit pontificating, facebook-note-penning and fingers jabbed emphatically in the air — and for what? The issue is flat-out moot, for just the simple reasons that President Obama articulated: “Let me be clear: as [...]

The dust from the shift from hosts Jake Tapper to Christiane Amanpour still settling, today’s This Week panel took on the 14th Amendment and the greater topic of the Senate, and weren’t all that enthusiastic about the use of the upper chamber. While the Washington Post‘s Michael Gerson defended it’s use as a neutralizing body, the New Yorker‘s George Packer argued that today’s Senate is “gelatinous” and makes legislating more difficult.

Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle seems unable to make any political statement without making some jaws drop– a quality she has attributed to the fact that the press is not her “friend.” But even without the press around, as demonstrated in a questionnaire she answered for a conservative PAC, her policies are controversial: she says she supports legislation to ban adoptions by gay couples, allow clergy to endorse candidates, and restrict the sale of pornography. The PAC endorsed her.

Some people may find this kind of heated discussion “Destructive To America,” but no one can deny that Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly make some great political theater together. Tonight they took on the topic of partial-birth abortions as understood by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which launched the usually convivial colleagues into a deep 5-minute argument that veered dangerously into the territory of defining whether a fetus is a child.

It seems like yesterday the media was in a frenzy over Going Rogue, but six months later, publisher HarperCollins is announcing that Sarah Palin’s sophomore effort is officially a done deal, under the title America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag. America By Heart is set to take America by storm, again, next November.

Discussing the National Day of Prayer and its detractors with Bill O’Reilly, Sarah Palin gave us her unique take on the American standard of separation of church and state. She insisted there was nothing wrong with having a national day for observing spirituality, not because there was no one religion being championed over another, but because the Founders who wrote the Constitution subscribed to Judeo-Christian beliefs, which were meant to be taken into consideration when writing laws.

Onion rings uniting against Justin Bieber or pickled Nickelback opponents are allowed to roam free on Facebook, but a poodle in a tinfoil hat campaigning to acquire more fans than Glenn Beck is a step too far. This the latest verdict from the social networking company, who slapped the fan page “Can This Poodle Wearing a Tinfoil Hat Get More Fans than Glenn Beck?” with a “publish block” that prevents them from recruiting new members or advertising the page on Facebook.