Bill Maher revisited a recurring theme of his show in his final New Rule tonight: conservatives actively disrespecting President Obama to his face. From Congressman Joe Wilson to Bill O’Reilly, Maher argued there is a consistent pattern emerging that Obama is being treated far worse by his opposition than any Democratic president of the past fifty years. And as he did exactly a year ago, Maher patiently acknowledged the numerous insults he threw at George W. Bush…

Jesse Jackson, Sr. is worried for the safety of the President. The Reverend made his way to Martin Bashir‘s show today, where he was asked to comment on Republican disrespect of the president. And while the conversation began on the topic of acceptable political discourse, literally within the same sentence Jackson turns around and warns of the possibility that “somebody shoots an AK-47 in the White House.” Huh?

Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) stopped by MSNBC yesterday, where he weighed in on Rep. Allen West‘s recent comments urging President Obama and other Democratic leaders to take their message “to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.”

Ed Schultz opened his program tonight with a segment of Republicans behaving badly– from RNC Chair Reince Priebus to Arizona governor Jan Brewer to Rep. Allen West. Schultz and his guests, Melissa Harris-Perry and James Peterson, made the point that Priebus’s comparison of the President to the Captain of the sunken Costa Concordia, Brewer’s exchange with him in Arizona, and West’s demand that he leave America were all indicative of the same illness in Republican politics.

You know a segment is growing beyond the control of its host whenever anyone invokes the term “____ mafia.” In the case of Monday’s episode of America Live, host Megyn Kelly tried, in vain, to reign in the discussion by guests Jehmu Greene, former president of the Women’s Media Center, and radio host / Tea Party 365 co-founder David Webb.

Recently, the most attention has been paid to a politician’s finger since that brief period in the 90s when Sen. Bob Dole copied Carson Daly’s black nail polish look (Bring it back, Bob! It worked!). The reason? The infamous picture of Jan Brewer either horribly disrespecting the President or pointing out that he has some ear wax buildup. Since that photo surfaced, some commentators have accused the moment of everything from racism to intentional self promotion. But, did you know that a very similar moment occurred a few years back between Brian Williams and George W. Bush?

The media has been abuzz for the past two days over the allegedly confrontational conversation between Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and President Obama. Some analysts saw dark racial undertones in the way Brewer challenged the president, and on his show tonight, Bill Maher waded into this controversy and got into a loud argument with the panel over whether Brewer was being “disrespectful” towards Obama.

On Thursday night’s Politics Nation, host Al Sharpton called out Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer‘s disrespectful conduct toward President Obama during their tarmac tussle, connecting it to a pattern of such contemptuous behavior by Republican leaders. Sirius XM radio host Joe Madison gave it a name, saying that there are people “who cannot stand the fact that this is an african-american who is now one of the most powerful individuals on the planet.”

On Thursday, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell and his guests discussed the “Finger of Fury” Arizona governor Jan Brewer gave President Barack Obama after greeting him on a tarmac this week. Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell called Brewer’s move “impolite,” noting that Brewer didn’t have to accept the invitation to meet him in the first place. But, “if you’re there, you treat the President with respect; you don’t point a finger in his face.” If you’re angry with him or need to hash something out, he continued, do it inside.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer appeared on CNN Thursday and was grilled by John King over her contentious meeting with President Obama. “Were you trying to create a scene here?” King asked. “There are some people suggesting you wanted to have a scene with the president so you could sell more of your books.” “Absolutely not!” Brewer exclaimed “That’s absolutely ridiculous!”

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer‘s finger-pointing tarmac confrontation with President Obama is the hot story of the day, and while the media treats this as a he said/she said affair, it might be a good idea to put Brewer’s account into context. She told reporters, among other things, that she “felt a little bit threatened, if [...]

Want to sell a book? Get into a heated discussion with the President. It worked for Arizona governor Jan Brewer. Sales of her book Scorpions for Breakfast have gone up a whopping 150,398 percent on Amazon.com over the past 24 hours.

On Thursday, the Morning Joe crew discussed yesterday’s “intense” meeting (and, consequently, perfect photo-op) between President Barack Obama and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. As we reported last night, the two entered into what reporters described as an “intense” exchange on a tarmac after, according to Brewer, the President expressed that he was “disturbed” by her memoir Scorpions for Breakfast, feeling it had been disrespectful to him.

Air Force One landed in Phoenix, Arizona today, and was greeted by the governor of that state. The exchange between President Obama and Governor Jan Brewer quickly went from being a friendly greeting to something reporters described as an “intense” exchange, however, and the photo coming out of that encounter proves it: the President and Gov. Brewer seem to disagree on whether her new book was respectful enough to the President.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday morning to discuss her new book, “Scorpions For Breakfast” and strongly defended her aggressive border control policy with the implementation of the controversial anti-immigration law SB 1070. “We are not racist,” Brewer insisted. “We are not bigoted but we know that, quote, the liberal media generally wants to shove that race card out there.”

While the worst (Donald Trump) may be behind us (or not!), the fate of the Republican Party in 2012 is about as stable and certain as a moment of peace on Real Housewives of New Jersey. But unlike that reality show, almost anyone with the right resources can hop into this race, and with that [...]

Gov. Jan Brewer has vetoed a bill passed by the Arizona legislature that would require presidential candidates to present their long-form birth certificates in order to get on the ballet– a maneuver that would likely keep President Barack Obama from the ballot in that state. Calling it “a bridge too far,” the governor noted that she considered the measure too intrusive on a presidential candidate’s background with little payoff.

Viewers of Sunday’s This Week were treated to a powerhouse All-Gubernatorial round table, moderated by popular fill-in Jake Tapper. Although the panel was ideologically mixed, you might not have known that given their response to this question: “Don’t you think it’s a little cowardly for the legislators — Democratic legislators in Indiana and Wisconsin just to have fled?”

Republican Governor of Arizona Jan Brewer announced today that the State of Arizona is suing the Federal Government for failure to protect the state’s border with Mexico and for failure to enforce immigration laws. At a news conference Brewer declared, “We did not start this fight. But, now that we are in it, Arizona will not rest until our border is secured and federal immigration laws are enforced.”

While President Obama‘s speech at Wednesday night’s “Together We Thrive” memorial to the victims of Saturday’s mass shooting is justly receiving a lot of attention, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer also delivered stirring remarks at the event. While the contrast between the President’s speech and that of Sarah Palin will likely be the topic of the day, Brewer’s brief remarks displayed the hope for a more civil relationship between rivals embodied in the President’s address.

In his own effort to ratchet down the temperature of political rhetoric, Countdown host Keith Olbermann seems to be putting his money where his mouth is. For months, he has been satirizing Sarah Palin by referring to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer‘s cuts to organ transplant funding as the “Arizona Death Panel.” However, in the first [...]

There were no shortage of media disaster’s this year: from a politician threatening to kill a reporter, a movie star threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend, a Prime Minister killing his own political career, and a CEO trying to “top kill” an oil spill, there’s lots of lighthearted embarrassment and shame to go around.

Here, without further ado, are 2010′s ten worst media disasters:

Jasiri X, the Pittsburgh rapper who last asked the musical question “What if the Tea Party Was Black?” has dropped another topical hip-hop track that manages to avoid the gender-based political attacks that are all the rage right now. “Republican Woman” references the widely-reported trend of high-profile women in GOP politics, but manages to keep its barbs gender-neutral.

It’s also drop-dead funny. (h/t Davey D)

We hear, and write, a lot about certain candidates during this 2010 election cycle, and its not just the ones who are in hotly contested races.

No, we like to hear about the characters – the fun ones. Which of these actually have a chance to win? We ranked them all, based on polls, momentum and more, using what we’re calling the “Minnesota Scale”.

For better of worse nothing fires up Maureen Dowd like powerful women. In today’s column her sights are set on the ‘Republican Mean Girls.’ In other words, Sarah Palin‘s Mama Grizzlies. Perhaps not surprisingly she has some rather mean words for this group (in the words of Drudge: MAUREEN DOWD UNLEASHED)