With all the scandals to have hit American politics in the 21st century, it’s sometimes hard to keep all these disgraced politicians straight. Luckily, Rachel Maddow put all the data together on one handy chart– the Post Bill Clinton Modern American Political Sex Scandal Consequence-O-Meter, the X-axis representing potential legal problems and the Y-axis representing the creepiness factor of their behavior.

If anyone enjoyed today’s press conference the most, it was…well, probably Andrew Breitbart. But following closely behind, there’s Glenn Beck. Beck was absolutely giddy as he spent the first few minutes of his show railing on the disgraced congressman who had been a huge detractor last year. If anyone thought Beck enjoyed making an anti-Weiner website, you should see him now.

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised the Rahm-Emanuel-is-going-to-be-mayor-of-Chicago saga took an unforeseen turn yesterday.

If you haven’t heard, an appellate court ruled 2-1 he didn’t meet the qualifications for city residency. Because he’d lived in Washington D.C. to take the job as President Obama’s chief of staff and rented out his house, the court ruled, he was out as mayoral candiate.
But here’s why this brouhaha shouldn’t come as a surprise: This isn’t the first time Emanuel has seemed to take things for granted. It’s very similar to what happened when he was Obama’s chief of staff.

As the Gen. Stanley McChrystal story continues to evolve one of the questions will inevitably be…what happens next?

Will the lengthy Rolling Stone profile signal his downfall, or will he survive to see another day. Let’s take a look five recent career-threatening profiles or interviews, and whether the subjects were able to keep their job?

Silver lining for Republicans? Visiting Keith Olbermann tonight to talk about the details of pro-abstinence Republican Rep. Mark Souder‘s affair with a staffer, Washington Post blogger David Weigel noted that the relative damage compared to the Eric Massa affair shows that, perhaps, Republicans are better at cleaning up after themselves with these scandals.

Is Glenn Beck’s time in the media klieg lights coming to a close? The latest Nielsen numbers reveal that Beck’s audience is down nearly 30% since the start of the year. But why the drop (if, indeed, there even is one)? Is the country growing bored of chalkboards, or is the larger issue that the nation is merely out-Becking Glenn Beck?

With the notable exception of the “There once was a man from Nantucket” genre, the limerick is a largely unappreciated art form. Whether it’s the rigidity of the format or their reputation for lewdness (check this classic, for example), limericks have a hard time gaining respect.

Oy. Looks like Eric Massa was guilty of more than just ‘salty’ language and tickle fights. Massa, who might have managed to slink off into the that good night otherwise known as political oblivion had he not come under the Glenn Beck spotlight, is back in the headlines again today and not for anything good.

Luke Russert was paneling with David Shuster earlier today, in what may have been the most shameless (and yes, sadly, entertaining) moments on cable news thus far this week. Taking off on a Daily Beast feature ranking the top political sex scandals in recent history, Russert took a decidedly sporty style to analyzing what makes a political sex scandal interesting and who has suffered the most political shame: Democrats or Republicans. Video of the sophomoric and salacious video below:

Stephen Colbert has a plan to “refocus” the media’s coverage on Afghanistan. Colbert was apparently inspired to answer Rhode Island congressman Patrick Kennedy’s somewhat unhinged call for the media to pay more attention to Afghanistan instead of focusing on the likes of Eric Massa and his adventures in “snorkeling” by going Massa on Afghanistan.

This is the reason why Jon Stewart and The Daily Show deserve all the accolades they receive: they take a topic that would be so very banal in the hands of any one else, and make it far more entertaining and informative with their own treatment. In this instance the topic is political sex scandals and the associative and hypocritical rhetoric that follows

Eric Massa may be gone but he is certainly not yet forgotten (though probably a number of people are giving it their best shot). More troubling, at least for the Dems, is that his hangover effect (and we’re not just talking “tickle fights” here) may be months in the curing. At least that’s what George Will thinks.

Well no one says Lorne Michaels doesn’t have his finger on the pulse of our culture: Tonight’s SNL featured a cold open where ex-Rep. Eric Massa fessed up to groping his staffers, tickle-fights, and a whole bunch of Navy “snorkeling.”

Update: Special guest Jerry Seinfeld joined Seth Meyers in a second take-down of Massa during “Weekend Update”. Both videos below.

The last piece of the Eric Massa puzzle – disgraced former governor of Illinois and news cycle hero Rod Blagojevich, has decided to enter the fray in an interview with Fred Thompson, the former actor who sleepily made a run for the Republican nomination to the presidency in 2008 and apparently has a radio show now. And he knows exactly what Massa is talking about when he says Rahm Emanuel harassed him nude in the showers of the Congressional gym.

Jimmy Fallon‘s version of a late night show involved viral video hits, SNL-like sketches and more that are the result of his personal history at Saturday Night Live as well as his executive producer, Michael Shoemaker.

Which last night meant his nightly Late Night show got the first crack at a sketch involving tickle fight enthusiast Eric Massa.

Nancy Pelosi sat down with Rachel Maddow last night. The interview provided a number of interesting exchanges about both Eric Massa (whom Pelosi didn’t seem too eager to chat about) and Maddow favorite Bart Stupak. “Every bill is a heavy lift,” says Pelosi. “Let’s talk about someone who is trying to make it heavier,” says Maddow.

The pie in question is the ‘twice-fried cherry pie’ from a Brooklyn restaurant called The Chip Shop (if you ever go there make sure to have the deep fried Mars Bar). The menu states that the pie has been banned by New York State, presumably as part of their saturated fats ban. IT IS A PIE TOO FAR. I encourage you to watch the clip and then reflect on the restraint Glenn Beck showed during the Eric Massa interview.

Can anyone blame Jon Stewart for not being able to resist Tuesday’s epic Eric Massa, Glenn Beck interview? No. And Stewart is in top form here, especially for those who missed either the interview or the lead up to it (as per usual, even Stewart can’t quite match the phenomenon of the real thing). Video after the jump.

As the Eric Massa story continues to unfold, the media’s wall-to-wall coverage of it becomes thinner and thinner. On last night’s Countdown, fill-in host Lawrence O’Donnell spent 3 entire segments on the Massa story, alternately cracking wise about the Navy and obsessing over the sexual slang term “snorkeling.” Drew Grant points out the offensiveness of some of O’Donnell’s treatment, but the show was also guilty of the lesser crime of dullness.

Okay, we get that some left-leaning members of the MSM are (rightfully!) pissed at Eric Massa for using the Democratic Party’s shortcomings as a sort of scape-goat for his own alleged sexual misconduct, but MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell took it over the line tonight on Countdown when he set out to use the stories some of Massa’s former Navy-mates to find out if those tickle-fights and “Massa Massages” were pro-the-course on the high seas.

During a debate over the Afghan War in the U.S. House of Representatives, Pat Kennedy (D – R.I.) pilloried the national press corps for wasting time with stories of little consequence. Kennedy screamed, “There’s one, two press people in this gallery…we’re talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV. We’re talking about war and peace. $3 billion; one thousand lives and no press! No press!” Rarely does one see such passion on the House floor, and now you can via the magic of Internet video!

With any luck Eric Massa will have wound his way out of the news cycle, likely never to be heard from again. In the meantime there is the a bit of a clean-up job that needs to be done by Glenn Beck. Something which he got started on during his radio show this morning, in what could be called ‘Ridicule Massa Wednesday.’

Eric Massa‘s tour de ‘tickle’ hour with Glenn Beck last night has left the host with some unlikely bedfellows (no pun intended!). Behold Arianna Huffington declaring her sympathy for Glenn Beck. Eric Massa unites the cable-sphere?

Tonight on Larry King Live, Eric Massa refused to answer the CNN host’s question about his sexuality, instead side-stepping the issue by saying “It insults every gay American because it classifies people. Why would anyone even ask that question?”

So, Eric Massa showed up for his Glenn Beck interview. And honestly I’m not really sure where to start. Wow. Riveting stuff. I think it’s fair to say, if you’ve ever wondered what Glenn Beck looks like when he realized he’s been had that the 20 minute mark is a good place to start.