Congressman Allen West spoke at a Florida GOP dinner last night, and had some fighting words for Democrats who are trying to mark Florida in the win column this November. He declared it a “battlefield” for citizens to stand on and tell the Democrats that their message is not going to resonate with the citizens of Florida. West called out not just President Obama, but Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and fellow Floridian Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

On CNN’s State of the Union today, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint responded to an assertion made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last week on Meet the Press that the influence of the Tea Party has been dying down as the economy is slowly picking up steam. Reid claimed that Republicans are starting to realize the Tea Party is too radical and are trying to distance themselves from it, but DeMint argued that the movement is still going strong.

On Meet the Press today, David Gregory showed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a poll that shows two-thirds of the electorate disapproves of the Democrats in Congress. Reid acknowledged that the American people have many legitimate problems with Congress, but insisted Republican obstructionism has been the main roadblock to legislative success, citing the debt ceiling debate as an example.

It seems no one is fully satisfied with the deal that last month’s debt crisis finally carved out of Congress, with polls showing Americans feel Congress behaved like “spoiled children” and the deal with nothing short of “disgusting.” On tonight’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart took a closer look at the congressional “supercommittee” that is supposed to navigate the country out of this mess, and found the comic book heroes at least marginally underwhelming.

President Obama yesterday signed into law the controversial debt bill that not only raised the debt ceiling, but also seemed to have done political damage to both the White House and Democrats who appeared to have done less compromising, and more capitulating to an obstinate Tea Party-lead congressional GOP caucus. How bad was the final deal? Well even fake newsman Stephen Colbert has piled on to the liberal side of the aisle, and not in the amplified absurd of hyperbole of his “character” but in a way that seems to reveal that he really thinks the Dems got screwed…at both ends.

With just days to go before the Aug. 2 “hard deadline” to raise the debt ceiling, President Obama addressed the nation Monday night, after earlier throwing his support behind the latest compromise plan from Sen. Harry Reid. A much cooler-headed President once again framed the issue of debt and deficit reduction in terms of shared sacrifice, quoted Ronald Reagan‘s call for a fair approach, and called on Americans to contact their representatives and demand compromise.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney released a statement Monday afternoon expressing administration support for Sen. Harry Reid‘s (D-NV) debt ceiling compromise that raises the debt ceiling by $2.7 trillion, cuts spending by the same amount, and contains no revenue increases. Carney’s statement made clear that this was not the President’s preferred choice, but noted that “it removes the cloud of a possible default from our economy through 2012.”

The statement is a departure from the administration’s recent strategy of holding frequent briefings with reporters, with President Obama taking an unprecedented number of questions.

Rep. Eric Cantor is a petulant child, and President Obama is the know-it-all teacher’s pet tattling that he refused to “eat his peas.” These are the headlines greeting America this morning– headlines which, given the financial guillotine Moody’s is dangling over America’s neck, read to some as rather shallow. The shock, sincere or not, unveils a naivete towards government in the American psyche that overlooks a harsh, but inescapable, reality: The media has turned Congress into a playground. Why are we surprised only children want to work there?

And you thought we were finished with political Twitter stories? C’mon, this is Washington we’re talking about! The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s getting blowback today from both the left and right for a series of fake re-tweets sent from the NRSC’s official @nrsc Twitter account. The bogus RTs each make reference to Democrats failing to produce a budget, and include a link to a webpage, www.demsplanforamerica.com, that is–wait for it–a blank page.

Conservative websites like The Blaze and Gateway Pundit (and even Fair and Balanced™ ones like Fox Nation) are working themselves into lathers of varied thickness over what they claim is Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) omission of the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance on the Senate floor. While it is true that Reid didn’t say “under God,” he also didn’t omit it. Let’s take these folks to school right quick.

The big news of the night is that the government will indeed not shut down, as a deal was reached on a federal budget through the end of the year (in the meantime, a stopgap measure will be passed so the larger deal can be finalized). President Barack Obama spoke on the deal, praising Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House John Boehner, as well as the deal itself.

Thanks to our friends at BuzzFeed, here’s a run down of all the funniest, weirdest, most disturbing, and all around best viral stories of the past week!

Barack Obama held a press conference at around 10:40 Wednesday evening to announce that a deal has yet to be reached regarding ongoing budget negotiations. Obama, who had discussed the negotiations with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid in a late night meeting, called a government shutdown “inexcusable,” stressing the many services that would suspended and offices (like, say, the IRS) that would be forced to close would such a shutdown occur.

Republican Congressman Allen West appeared with Greta Van Susteren last night to discuss the possibility of a government shutdown. While West suggested there is enough blame to go around amongst politicians of both parties for the fiscal crisis we are in, he singled out some Senate Democrats as “definitely being obstructionist in this process.”

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid spoke yesterday about what he believes to be the Tea Party’s harmful influence on budget discussions. Reid predicts that as the economy improves, the Tea Party will fade out. However, until they are gone, he is not happy to have to deal with their criticism.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sat for an interview with Lawrence O’Donnell and discussed nuclear power plants, nuclear waste and budget battles. However, his most interesting comments came when he revealed his thoughts on the longevity of the Tea Party and when he told everyone from Congressional Republicans to President Obama to back off on trying to “fix” Social Security.

What, you want to make sure we save some money amid all the budget cutting to take care of kids in poverty? Yeah, sure, right after Harry Reid makes sure nobody messes with federal funding for the annual “cowboy poetry festival” in his home state of Nevada. Yes. According to Politico, Reid delivered a “tirade” Tuesday against “mean-spirited” Republican efforts to cut the budget, and remarked the GOP’s ideas of cuts would eliminate funding for his beloved cowboy poets. And that, my friends, is a dealbreaker.

Democratic Senator Harry Reid has had enough of hookers and wants the “oldest profession” finally banned in Nevada. In a speech to the Nevada state legislature, Reid advised that outlawing prostitution is the key to Nevada’s economic recovery, a suggestion which, at best, received a tepid applause.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is not happy with President Obama and specifically with one line from the State of the Union address. When the President warned both parties that he vows to veto any bill with earmarks in it, Reid remarked, “the President thinks this will help him a little bit. More power to him, it’s just wrong.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid– who almost lost his job in a tight race against Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle– seems much more confident in the challenge the Democrats face from that faction now than ever before. In a preview for an exclusive interview with Meet the Press‘s David Gregory airing tomorrow, Reid contends that the Tea Party will be a thing of the past as soon as his Congress can fix the economy– a goal not so far off the horizon.

There is a well accepted maxim in any sort of negotiation technique that states that its always best to let your adversary believe they’ve got the better end of the deal. This comes to mind after hearing the following interview between Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in which the Senator claims that it was Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) that got the better end of recent lame-duck session legislation, and not his own Grand Old Party.

Senator Harry Reid, savvy observer and creator of culture that he is, responded to those who claim they have not had enough time to read through the START treaty by emailing a list of all the events that have transpired since the President Barack Obama and Russian Dmitry Medvedev agreed on START back in April. So what important cultural happenings made their way onto his list?

Bill O’Reilly proudly declared on last night’s Factor, “you want action? You’ve come to the right place.” O’Reilly was referring to the fact that on his Thursday night show he encouraged viewers to contact their elected officials and express discontent with the pork-filled omnibus spending bill. When combined with his railing against the huge amounts of proposed congressional spending throughout the week, O’Reilly congratulated his viewers for effectively putting enough pressure on their elected officials to drop their support of the bill.

Last night the U.S. Senate voted on a bill that will extend the current Tax Cuts first put into place by President Bush after Senator Harry Reid appeared to capitulate to the threat of a Republican filibuster. This appeared to frustrate, if not anger MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow last night, and not only because it messed up the rundown of her show. It understandably irked the self-described progressive because it was just another example of, as she put it, “this phenom of passing bills in the house only to see it die in the Senate.”

Sean Hannity welcomed Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele onto his program tonight to talk about recent events in Congress, as well as take a look at his party’s future – and his own, in the wake of his controversial decision to seek re-election as RNC chair.