During last night’s CNN coverage of New Year’s, co-host Kathy Griffin decided to strip down to her bra much to the chagrin of Anderson Cooper, who then had to subsequently field a call from political correspondent David Gergen. Awkwardness ensued.

Following the conclusion of Rick Perry‘s much ballyhooed comeback speech in South Carolina on his flat tax plan, CNN’s Joe Johns questioned senior political correspondent David Gergen, in football terms, if his bold, new proposal could save his campaign. “When you listen to this politically, is this sort of a hail mary pass for the Perry campaign? You know, he’s dropped in the polls and has to get back in the game, does he not?”

On Wednesday’s Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert was jealously enraged at the bizarre news that George Clooney invited fellow newsmen Charlie Rose and David Gergen to skinny dip at his Italian villa. “It could have been my body glistening in the italian moonlight!” Colbert exclaimed.

CNN senior political analyst David Gergen noted last night on Anderson 360 that many Americans were “horrified” at what they heard during Monday night’s Republican debate. ”I was getting notes about, they ought to keep these people locked up and not let them out — don’t let them do anything to the country,” he said. “People [...]

CNN’s John King assembled a panel yesterday to discuss whether the recent credit downgrade and the devastating loss of specialized troops in the ongoing war in Afghanistan mark these as the worst days of Barack Obama‘s presidency. He brought on a couple of individuals who know a thing or two about following presidents as they [...]

Rush Limbaugh today read a CNN commentary from David Gergen, who Rush mockingly refers to as David “Rodham” Gergen because of a perceived bias in favor of the Clintons. Gergen was surprised that “the three people who talked Obama into using force against Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi were all women” and Rush was even more shocked that Gergen was surprised.

The latest chapter of of the revolution in Egypt occurred last week with the astonishing resignation of Hosni Mubarak Coincidentally, Jon Stewart and his team of minions at The Daily Show had the week off (eyebrows raised?), so there was lots of news, media coverage and general levity to made of the events of last week. There’s Fox and Friends Brian Kilmeade implication that Tony Blair and George Bush invented freedom; Glenn Beck fearing said freedom; and David Gergen giving credit to the Egyptian people. Wait, what?!

President Obama‘s handling of the BP Oil spill seems to simultaneously be providing the public with a quick review of 20th Century history. Initially, the BP Oil spill was Obama’s Katrina. More recently Obama’s response inspired some not-so-flattering WWII comparisons from David Gergen. Yesterday, Shepard Smith said the spill could end up being worse than 9/11. And today it’s apparently Obama’s Watergate.

The President Obama/BP Oil Spill pile continues! It’s starting to feel like the new media sporting event. Over at CNN last night James Carville continued his tirade calling for “heads to roll” and the normally low key David Gergen noted that “if our government had fought WWII like the way we’re fighting the oil spill, there’s a good chance many of us would be speaking German today.”

We previously chronicled the accuracy of the Daily Beast’s attempts to rank the most influential liberals and conservatives in American media. Over the weekend the online magazine attempted a similar endeavor with the “Top 25 Centrist Columnists and Commentators,” and it’s about as flawed as the entire concept of centrism.

In a press release touting “unfriend” as the word of the year, the New Oxford American Dictionary may have unwittingly made a more controversial move than the New Oxford American Dictionary pretty much ever does. No, it wasn’t another cutesy tech neologism: they included “teabagger” as one of their Word of the Year finalists. Their definition after the jump — it doesn’t include some of the raunchier connotations.

Mediaite called the showdown between Fox News and the Obama administration back in mid-August. Now that it’s officially here, heralded by an attack-dog performance by White House Communications Director Anita Dunn on Reliable Sources, what does it mean? And which side, if either, will ultimately come out on top? A roundup of pundit reactions from the blogosphere and beyond:

Last week news broke that the White House was not just annoyed by the way that FNC has been covering the current administration, but they were also upset that other mainstream outlets have not been especially diligent when fact-checking Fox News. It was a stunning moment in which CNN was not only forced to cover their competition, but they also sort of partly credited FNC’s dominating ratings on the White House. Yeah…that’s the ticket!