On Thursday night’s The Last Word, host Lawrence O’Donnell dove into reports of a chaotic Herman Cain campaign with gusto, particularly the revelation that an internal campaign memo instructed aides, when driving with the candidate, “Do not speak to him unless you are spoken to.” O’Donnell joked that he had tried, unsuccessfully, to institute such a rule at MSNBC for a long time. Guest Joe Klein, though, probably had the line of the night, calling the Republican field “the most…glorious display of weird humanity I have ever seen.”

On his show today, Chris Matthews and panel discussed how several of the Republican presidential candidates, including Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, have been handling the Occupy Wall Street protests, given their supposed popularity with the American people.

Rep. Michele Bachmann has surged to the status of a frontrunner in the first primary state of Iowa, and now faces the general election hurdle of her opposition to gay rights being a hallmark of her campaign. This could be fatal to her election chances, John Heilmann argued on The Chris Matthews show today, as it is “anti-Obama animus” that fuels Republican voters nationally, and any sign that independents won’t run to her will weaken her changes at the nomination.

A lot of Washington reporters love covering politics from, you know, Washington. But TIME‘s Joe Klein has pretty much had it up to here with DC, and–since the 2012 election seems to be nearing full-swing status–he’s got a better idea, that combines finding stories and escaping the Capital. “Washington is just too ugly for words. The rest of the world isn’t much of a bargain, either. I’m feeling the need to get outta here, hit the road, talk to actual people. And so–you knew it was coming–another road trip!”

Now after a few weeks passed since President Obama successfully ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden, Chris Matthews wondered how much the act improved Obama’s relationship with the military. Elisabeth Bumiller from the New York Times admitted it was a boost, but warned that Obama’s proposed budget cuts to the military could jeopardize the warm feelings. Joe Klein, however, viewed the relationship as being in much better condition.

As the internets have likely been informing you, last night on MSNBC’s The Last Word, TIME columnist Joe Klein said the Democratic win in New York’s 26th District special election was “a victory for socialism.”

On Fox, the comments were covered without any suggestion Klein might’ve been kidding. And at Hot Air, Klein’s applauded for getting it right: “He’s crowing about Hochul’s big win and that’s irritating, so I feel obliged to rip on him — and yet, I don’t really disagree. Medicare is socialistic and the public might, might, be attached to it to the point where they prefer not to touch it even though that necessarily means a fiscal crisis sooner rather than later.”

With the momentous news that Osama bin Laden has been killed, Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner feels almost like an event from a bygone era. Still, for those of you who still remember the dinner, but have already seen President Obama‘s blistering Donald Trump routine, or Seth Meyers‘ dry-roasting of the media like so many [...]

On Sunday morning’s The Chris Matthews Show, host Chris Matthews asked his panel to debate Time Magazine‘s recent cover story on the existence of Hell. This isn’t new territory for Time, who drummed up controversy (and sales) by asking “Is God Dead?” in 1966, and as panelist Becky Quick notes, has revisited the topic many times.

Veering off-topic somewhat, Matthews asked “Why does the right wing love the Old Testament so much?”

The discussion on Libya certainly makes for some strange bedfellows. On Morning Joe liberal columnist Joe Klein and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan agreed that American military involvement in Libya was not a good idea, while former anti-war Democratic candidate Howard Dean was all for it.

Joe Klein‘s shots against fellow liberals on CNN recently did not go unnoticed, especially by MSNBC host Ed Schultz, who Klein described as “stupid” and “unworthy.” In his “Psycho Talk” segment today, Schultz went after Klein for attacking a position some polls show a majority of Americans agree with, and hinted that Klein has something to gain from the war continuing.

Time columnist Joe Klein appeared on CNN‘s Reliable Sources and pulled no punches attacking cable news channels and their personalities. Predictably Klein continued his assault on what he perceives to be Glenn Beck‘s craziness, but surprisingly also went after MSNBC‘s Ed Schultz.

During a segment on this morning’s The Chris Matthews Show, host Chris Matthews asked his panel to hand out year-end awards. Most of the broadcast was a fun discussion with good-natured praise and jabs for the year’s most notorious political celebrities. However, for the category of who demonstrated the biggest “Chutzpah” of the year, one nominee had guest Joe Klein nearly foaming at the mouth with anger.

Chris Matthews revealed an interesting statistic on his show Sunday: More than half of Republicans polled say they have a negative attitude toward Islam, this compared to only 27% of Democrats. Asked Matthews: Is this negative feeling what’s propelling American Muslims (i.e. the Times Sq. Bomber, and the Fort Hood shooter) to attack America? Joe Klein thinks it’s a contributing factor.

Hearst Newspapers columnist and trailblazing White House correspondent Helen Thomas has retired today, a swift conclusion to a story that only broke on Friday, quick even by the standards of today’s microscopic news cycle. Along the way, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin tried to leech onto the story by tweeting that Helen’s “press pals condone racist rant,” referencing comments Helen made at the White House on May 27th. I was in the White House briefing room today, and I can tell you that Palin’s tweet couldn’t be further from the truth.

Sarah Palin has turned her Twitter sights on White House correspondent Helen Thomas. Thomas made headlines the other day after she went on record saying she thought the Jews should ‘go home,’ and then further defined ‘home’ as Germany and Poland. She has since apologized. If Palin’s Twitter is any measure, however, that apology may not be enough to smooth over the controversy in the coming week as the cable news hosts get a hold of the story.

Aha! Someone was listening during Obama’s press conference the other day, when he was sure to note that Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar had inherited a rotten Minerals and Management Service, “plagued by corruption for years.” Today on The Chris Matthews Show, Joe Klein of Time magazine acknowledged that unlucky inheritance, calling the BP oil spill catastrophe “more Bush’s second Katrina than Obama’s first.”

Oh to be a fly on the wall for this conversation. After all his hooting and hollering over Time, and in particular Joe Klein, Glenn Beck apparently had no qualms about attending last night’s Time 100 bash…where, as luck would have it, he ran into said Mr. Klein. It apparently did not go well. May we present you the he said, he said.

There is only one aspect of politics, empirically, that Sarah Palin knows about: being the CEO of a state. So it shouldn’t be surprising to listen to her sound knowledgeable explaining Jan Brewer‘s decision to pass a controversial immigration law in Arizona on last night’s Hannity, but compared to the folksy buzzword soup she usually cooks up, this was conservative policy at its finest.

On today’s show Chris Matthews recapped reactions to Joe Klein’s “seditious” remark from both Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly and then asked his guests for their takeaway. “I’m more with Joe than I am with the Fox News Republican National Committee Coalition Machine” said Andrew Sullivan…and that was just the beginning.

Something about Joe Klein‘s sedition claim against Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin has struck a very deep chord with conservatives. Although Palin herself hasn’t responded, Beck has reacted with calm but passionate reiterations of his love for America, which even garnered him some tender reinforcement from Bill O’Reilly. Rush Limbaugh shot back at the criticisms in a WSJ op-ed this morning, calling the claims “self-serving nonsense.”

Bill O’Reilly moved his weekly “At Your Beck and Call” segment up a day today to give his young apprentice Glenn Beck a bit of a pep talk after Joe Klein called him “seditious” and made him feel like “a horse stepped on my chest.” Also, why is Glenn Beck wearing an FBI pin?

Glenn Beck has still obviously not gotten over being called seditious and compared to Timothy McVeigh. Yesterday, it was Joe Klein’s turn to incur the wrath of his ’50s TV fireside chat; today was Bill Clinton‘s. And if the left could get away with comparing him to McVeigh, Beck seemed to figure, he was going to turn the tables on them and compare Oklahoma City to the tragedy in Waco, Texas.

I missed this yesterday, but Time‘s Joe Klein provided some further explanation (more like a follow-up punch….suffice to say, he’s not sorry) of the serious charge he made over the weekend that Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin were nudging up close to committing sedition.

After a weekend that was filled with Tea Party talk, and accusations from Joe Klein that Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin were close to being seditious, Beck opted to follow up today’s (Patriot Day) tweet with a long opening monologue that felt like a strange combination of a fireside chat meets an AA meeting. He is not seditious.

Press Sec. Robert Gibbs Reliable Sources this morning where after a few quick nods to the SCOTUS selection process Howie Kurtz quickly turned the talk to Fox News. Is the White House softening in its approach to the ‘wrestling’ that goes on on Fox News? Gibbs’ remarks regarding the news network bordered on genteel compared to some of the criticism we’ve heard from the administration in the past (and from others outside it today).