Appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman last night, Arizona Senator John McCain nervously squirmed as the late night host asked him questions about the state of the Republican Party.

On Tuesday, ABC announced Christiane Amanpour would no longer be hosting This Week — she would stay on as a global affairs anchor, while returning to CNN to host a show on CNN International. While Amanpour seemed overjoyed (“This role is groundbreaking, bold and very different,” Amanpour said. “I am thrilled and honored”), ABC now had a role to fill. So they turned to the past, and announced Amanpour’s replacement: George Stephanopoulos.

Good Morning America showed a clip from yesterday’s culinary talk show The Chew, where the foodies — all snuggled up in pajamas in beds on set as they prepared to chow down on General Tso’s chicken from Chinese takeout boxes. Mario Batali joined the rest of the group and inexplicably broke the bed frame. George Stephanopoulos chuckled, and gave the ginger-bearded chef some advice. “Mario, it’s time to put down that chow mein, pick up some celery.”

Bill Maher appeared on Monday’s Good Morning America to promote his new book “The New New Rules” and gave some surprisingly frank praise for Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney in an interview with anchor George Stephanopoulos. “You’ve got to feel very bad for Mitt Romney,” Maher observed. “I mean, he has been led so far by Trump, then Bachmann, then Perry, then Cain…I’m rooting for him. Look, because in a country with two political parties the Republican can always win. I mean — at least he eats with a knife and fork! I mean — he is all that stands between us and the rise of the apes.”

Rick Perry appeared on Good Morning America in full damage control mode following his 53-second meltdown of an epic gaffe at yesterday’s debate. Anchor George Stephanopoulos grilled the Texas Governor about his botched answer, saying he looked like he was in pain. “I was thinking about the number of federal agencies that were coming to mind but the one that I wanted to say, the Department of Energy, would not come out!” Perry exclaimed. “In all seriousness, that is one of the problems we have in this country, that we have so many agencies in government out there, that are impacting people’s lives. Everybody makes mistakes!”

During Sharon Bialek‘s media tour this morning about her allegations against Herman Cain, she sat down with Good Morning America‘s George Stephanopoulos. Stephanopoulos questioned Bialek about whether she had called Joel Bennett, the attorney of one of the other accusers of the Republican candidate, who had said a woman from Chicago named “Sharon” had called him. Bialek hesitated. “We not going to answer who she calls,” attorney Gloria Allred interjected. “You can’t say? Why not?” pressed Stephanopoulos. “Because that’s not the issue — the issue is Herman Cain,” responded Allred.

Mediaite founder and ABC legal analyst Dan Abrams appeared on Good Morning America this morning — in what seems to be his daily segment — to makes sense of Amanda Knox‘s most recent turn in the Italian courts, this time facing an appeals court in hopes of getting her guilty conviction dropped and returning home to Seattle. “Well, look, she’s got a decent shot here of going free, but there are a lot of other possibilities,” Abrams said, cautioning that Knox is not home-free just yet.

Democratic strategist James Carville is feeling better about President Obama‘s economic strategy after yesterday’s speech. Last week he penned a none-to-subtle op-ed for CNN suggesting that the President do two things: fire all his economic advisors and panic. So far as we know, Obama hasn’t fired everyone just yet, but joining Good Morning America‘s George Stephanpoulous today, Carville sounded pleased with the steps the president has taken, saying, “I think he fired his old negotiating philosophy which was a pretty good start.”

On Good Morning America this morning, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus made clear that he is “very satisfied with where the field is at in the Republican side of the aisle” and that “it’s time to start to debate about how to get American back on the rails and save ourselves economically and make Barack Obama a one-term president.” As he sees it, President Obama has “taken the country off the rails,” and Congress’s lagging approval ratings are not a problem. “You know I’m not worried about it, because I think that at the end of the day the fish rots at the head,” he said.

On Wednesday morning’s edition of Good Morning America, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Karl Rove called Rick Perry‘s stance on Social Security “toxic in a general election environment and…also toxic in a Republican primary.”

Muammar Gaddafi, “has become, for all intents and purposes, a part of Libya’s past and now people need to look to build Libya’s better future,” Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman said, sounding hopeful, on Good Morning America today. During the brief interview conducted from Cairo, he furthered President Barack Obama‘s assessment that Gaddafi’s regime is “absolutely” past it’s tipping point, but reminded GMA host George Stephanopoulos that, even when you are the highest ranking official on the ground, verified information is scarce.

Here at Mediaite we don’t write about, much less care too much about, fancy-pants restaurants, even those deemed to be “media” hangouts and especially those considered “hot spots.” So last year when our founder Dan Abrams and other media guy Dave Zinczenko got involved in The Lion restaurant, we yawned publicly while secretly imagining a new Mediaite clubhouse, sort of like a real-life version of Cheers only with powerful media figures playing the part of regulars.

Michelle Bachmann appeared on GMA today and was respectfully confronted by host George Stephanopoulos over what PolitiFact has deemed “false statements” the GOP presidential candidate made in the past, particularly her claim that America’s “founders” had “worked tirelessly” to end slavery. Bachmann doubled down, specifically citing the efforts of John Quincy Adams. When Stephanopoulos pointed out that this Adams was not, in fact, a founding father, Bachmann reiterated that as a boy, he “certainly was a part of the Revolutionary War era.” Gotcha?

After yesterday’s dust up between HLN’s Nancy Grace and Mediaite founder and ABC legal analyst Dan Abrams on Good Morning America, it would be expected that some viewers were eagerly watching today’s segment to see if any sparks flew. However, both had made it clear after the fact that they’re old friends and would rather focus on the matter at hand, the trial of Casey Anthony. Yet, with the shocking twist in the case yesterday, GMA‘s George Stephanopoulos had to remark that there finally was some agreement between the two. What was it on? Well, they both seemed highly suspicious of the latest testimony from Anthony’s mother Cindy.

Today on Good Morning America, Mediaite founder and ABC legal analyst Dan Abrams and HLN’s Nancy Grace joined George Stephanopoulos to discuss the latest developments in the ongoing trial of Casey Anthony. Previously, the two had discussed the ways the defense would handle their own client, today, they discussed how the attorneys have treated the [...]

About five years ago if you asked any regular Today Show watcher who would take over as co-host if Matt Lauer ever left, the answer would have been an easy one: David Gregory. The natural and smooth (and tall!) Gregory had been the fill in for Lauer just about every time Lauer took any time off. He even boogied live at the 30 Rock plaza to show off his “lighter side.” But these days an 8-11AM Today Show watcher who doesn’t follow politics closely (Gregory appears to be on pretty regularly in the first half hour talking politics) might very well say David who?

Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner appeared on Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos and laid out his final arguments for why he remains determined to fight for the largest budget cuts possible. Boehner reiterated he does not want a government shutdown and thinks it is “irresponsible,” however, if it does occur, he is confident it will not be as detrimental to him as it was to Newt Gingrich in the 1990s.

In an interview Thursday morning on ABC’s Good Morning America, Rep. Michele Bachmann talked about her interest in the White House, how she’d handle the Middle East as president, and even Lady Gaga. What she wouldn’t say, however, was whether the president was a Christian and a citizen. “That’s not for me to state,” Bachmann told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “When the president makes his statements, I think they should stand for their own.”

So the Koran-burning Florida pastor with a congregation of 30 people has in less than a week managed to get the attention of the nation’s top general, the Secretary of State, and now the President who says Jones is creating “a recruitment bonanza for Al Qaeda.”

This morning on Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos spoke with Adrian Lamo, the former computer hacker who was the one to turn in Pfc. Bradley Manning, the young military specialist who has been accused of leaking both information leaked on Sunday as well as the infamous “Collateral Murder” video from last April. Unsurprisingly, Lamo had some less than nice words for WikiLeaks. Also in the program, Stephanopoulos talked to Eric Schmitt from the New York Times who defended his paper’s decision to publish some of the leaked material.

Judged purely by their back and forth on Twitter over the last six months, its safe to say that Andrew Breitbart and Eric Boehlert are not very fond of one another. In fact, it’s fair to say that they each hold the other in the lowest possible esteem. So it was with great anticipation that followers of both feisty Internet personalities tuned into Good Morning America this morning to see two debate the Shirley Sherrod controversy. Mediaite spoke to both gentlemen about the exchange.

This past weekend on Meet the Press, WH Press Secretary Robert Gibbs “stated the obvious” when he claimed that there “are enough seats in play” for the GOP to take the House this November. This, in turn, lead to House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi to reportedly call Gibbs “political inept” for the untoward remark. This story came up on Good Morning America, and Democratic strategist James Carville revealed that the Dems may need to rely on a higher authority to maintain a majority in the house.

Andrew Sullivan, who I think may pay even more attention to the family von Palin than even Joe McGinniss, thinks readers should take the latest tabloid report on the rekindling of Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston’s romance “with a grain of salt…along with all other information about the Palin famille.”

As much as any public figure Democratic strategist James Carville can probably take credit for leading the charge against the Obama administration’s apparent lack of action in the first weeks of the BP oil spill. Carville told GMA‘s George Stephanopoulos this morning that he thinks Obama’s address from the Oval Office tomorrow night (his first) is a chance for him to “hit the reset button.”

Commence the BP criminal investigation! One suspects the Obama administration is hoping to redirect the nation’s anger of the Gulf oil spill where (they feel) it belongs: squarely on the BP exec whose, possibly criminal, behavior may have resulted in this catastrophe. Despite originally planning to hold off until the leak was capped, the Justice Dept has instead decided to launch a criminal investigation now. Says Mike Allen: “The administration divorced BP yesterday, going public with the criminal investigation earlier than planned.”