Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) has served the state of Indiana in six consecutive terms in the U.S. Senate. While hard core conservatives may derisively point to his willingness to work with his ideological foes across the aisle, Lugar is a well respected member of congress recognized for his tough but well informed positions on U.S. foreign policy. Still, he finds himself in battle with some home-grown Tea Party candidates for his Senate seat, which Lugar took aim at during a sit down with CNN’s Candy Crowley.

Sarah Palin offered some advice to Mitt Romney, encouraging him to more openly embrace the fiscal and social conservative side of the Republican party, and to develop a more robust relationship with the Tea Party movement. This morning on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, host Martha MacCallum asked Daily Caller founder Tucker Carlson and liberal “embed” Alan Colmes to discuss Romney’s strategy in engaging the powerful Tea Party contingent, which Carlson put in remarkably stark terms.

This morning, Karl Rove went on Fox News and listed Herman Cain’s past mistakes on a white board, claiming the candidate had “peaked” in the polls. At the time, we suggested that this might just be another case of a GOP establishment type knocking a Tea Party favorite. Unsurprisingly, there was at least one person who was quick to jump on that theory. That person? Herman Cain.

Herman Cain’s reign on top of the 2012 contender list may be coming to an end. That’s the impression Karl Rove gave during an appearance on Fox News this morning as he slammed the candidate as having “created an image of him not being up for this task” through a series of blunders.

Christine O’Donnell appeared on The O’Reilly Factor as part of her promotional tour of her new book Troublemaker. Host Bill O’Reilly appeared to provide a much more welcoming interview than the one given by Piers Morgan (that spawned the publicity drawing mid-interview walk-off.) While O’Donnell mostly described how she had been victimized by both the media and her political supporters, she did get the chance to give Karl Rove some stick of her own.

One of the more compelling angles to the 2010 midterm elections was the so-called GOP Civil War that broke out between the Tea Party affiliated newcomers and the old-school GOP establishment. This “war” was most commonly portrayed as a battle between Sarah Palin and Karl Rove, but it appears there might be another combatant attacking Palin’s right flank: 2012 presidential hopeful and fellow Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough has just lit a cannon in the civil war within the GOP–encouraging like-minded Republicans to step up and take on Sarah Palin: “Enough. It’s time for the GOP to man up.” In a withering column on Politico, Scarborough dissects Palin’s resume, intelligence, and path to the presidency, calling her a huge problem for the party: “Republicans have a problem. The most-talked-about figure in the GOP is a reality show star who cannot be elected.”

Its a time-honored tradition for news sites and media blogs to throw up a “lets give thanks” type story in Thanksgiving Day.

And so, following are the images and descriptions of some of the top media stories, narratives and personalities that have made Fall such an interesting, exciting and yes, well-trafficked season for Mediaite. Happy Thanksgiving!

When Christine O’Donnell won the GOP nomination for the Delware Senate race, some senior and influential Republican personalities came out with remarkably critical rhetoric toward her candidacy. Some even called the contentious relationship between outside Tea Party candidates (like O’Donnell) and the Republican establishment as a “GOP Civil War.” Appearing on CNN’s American Morning today, O’Donnell sound a bit defiant in calling her loss a “symptom of Republican cannibalism.”

Chris Matthews was afforded the occasion to interview sitting Senator Robert Menendez (D – NJ) about today’s election results, and took the opportunity to take a shot at the GOP slate of candidate in his own loving and inimitable way. After lauding the Democrats for getting “the kind of candidates you wanted this year,” he then called the GOP slate “a lot of stray cats and dogs.” Note to Mr. Matthews: the cats and dogs seem to be winning, regardless of their pedigree.

There has been no shortage of drama and intrigue surrounding tomorrow’s midterm elections, but in the face of what’s expected to be a significant night for the GOP is the battle over the soul of the Republican party: Tea Party vs. Establishment or “old school” vs. new. This, then, was the subtext of a recent interview with GOP Party leader Michael Steele conducted by Shepard Smith, who pulled absolutely no punches in asking some very tough questions with the at-times maligned leader of the GOP.

Last week Karl Rove told German magazine Der Spiegel “If you look underneath the surface of the Tea Party movement, you will find that it is not sophisticated.” This created a bit of an uproar, or at least further evidence that there is somewhat of a civil war between the GOP establishment (vis-à-vis Rove) and the Tea Party movement. Well, last night Mr. Rove walked back those comments to Greta Van Susteren, claiming that he meant a different definition of “sophisticated.” Semantics, the last vestige of a scoundrel.

It’s impossible to lay the honor of creating the Tea Party movement at the feet of just one person, but there were a few seminal figures who help start the movement back in January of 2009. One such “founder” is Karl Denninger, who used his website Market-Ticker.org to promote the very first Tea Party event. Ironically, he’s now using the same means to call out the very movement he started. In a post titled “To The Tea Party: Go Screw Yourself” Denniger rails on those he feels have co-opted the Tea Party moniker, specifically calling out “Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Bob Barr, and douchebag groups such as the “Tea Party Patriots.”

During a debate in front of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School this morning, Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state. After her opponent Chris Coons stated that private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that religion “doesn’t belong in our public schools,” O’Donnell replied “where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?” Update – O’Donnell campaign responds and clarifies her statement.

During an interview with CNN political producer Shannon Travis, Sarah Palin claimed that she doesn’t believe that the Tea Party will split the Republican Party, but did state that if it strays from its core values, the ‘GOP would be through.’ Palin also added that if the Tea Party continues to tout “free market principles,” the movement will have no problem attracting independent voters, and called on members to “apply time tested truths” and prove they work.

On the night that Christine O’Donnell was declared the winner of the Republican Senate primary in Delaware, Fox News reported that the establishment — in this case the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) – would not be funding O’Donnell’s campaign. The NRSC later rebuffed that initial report, supporting O’Donnell to the maximum financial amount allowed by law. But things still are completely rosy between the two, best evidenced by the report filed by James Rosen of Fox News.

Last night Jon Stewart summed up the many delightfully absurd and entertaining parts of Christine O’Donnell’s primary victory — which seems to have caused a “GOP Civil War” — in a most humorous way. This story has it all: political infighting, masturbation and witchcraft. And we are only one week in!

Even the Palins appear to be talking about the presidential implications of Sarah Palin‘s current Iowa visit, even though it was clearly a joke. What is the phrase again? Many a truth are said in jest?

Yes, a suddenly self-aware and still solipsistic Tea Party advocate — who singlehandedly started a “GOP Civil War” by backing Christine O’Donnell — spoke at the Hy-Vee Hilton in Des Moines today. Her speech is after the jump.

Yesterday on Fox News’ Happening Now, Karl Rove refined his position on Christine O’Donnell. On the night that the Sarah Palin backed Tea Party candidate won the primary victory in Delaware, Rove was rather harsh in his assessment, calling her “nutty,” among other things. Many have seen this as a “GOP Civil War“; in fact Fox News Martha MacCallum sets up the following discussion with Rove by saying “that’s the way this battle line has been drawn: Tea Party versus establishment.”

Producers at AC 360 had maybe the smartest booking of last night’s cable news slate when they had on as guest the former GOP Presidential hopeful and Tea Party coiner Ron Paul to provide context to the so-called “GOP Civil War,” brought about by Christine O’Donnell’s stunning victory in Delaware. Anderson Cooper cut right to the chase when he asked if there was still room in the Repubican party for a moderate like Mike Castle. Paul contextualized the current political climate “we live in revolutionary times.”

One of the most fascinating aspects of following the “GOP Civil War” brought about by Christine O’Donnell‘s stunning primary victory is watching it play out in real time on Fox News. Sarah Palin, who backed the Tea Party candidate, is a Fox News contributor, and so too is Karl Rove, who has come to represent the GOP establishment, and has been a vocal critic of O’Donnell (and her chances for general election victory.) Enter the Fox News big dog, Bill O’Reilly, who reminded Gov. Palin that she and Rove were “simpatico” on most issues. In other words, can’t we all just get along?

Well it looks like the GOP Civil War might be getting even bigger. On the night that Christine O’Donnell won the Republican Primary, Karl Rove rained on her parade by slamming the Sarah Palin backed candidate for being “nutty,” then feeling the right-wing heat himself. This engendered an unusual backlash towards rove from host Sean Hannity and guest Michelle Malkin. Today, Palin joined the anti-Rove chorus only to be joined by Rush Limbaugh