Sen. John Kerry, representing the state of Massachusetts, showed up at an event honoring the Stanley Cup-winning Boston Bruins on Monday sporting two black eyes and a swollen nose. Appropriately, Kerry suffered the injuries while playing the sport being honored:

For a guy who has squealed like a stuck pig over Mitt Romney‘s attacks against him, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has taken to the long knives like a Dexter set designer with OCD. Earlier this week, Gingrich managed to shoehorn the infamous pooch-on-the-roof road trip into an ad about debates (?!?), and now, his campaign (not his superPAC; there are no degrees of Kevin Bacon here) has put out an insulting spot comparing Romney to Massachusetts Democrats, and noting that he “speaks french.”

GOP presidential candidate and attack ad pinata Newt Gingrich continued to complain about the millions of dollars in negative ads, many from pro-Mitt Romney SuperPACs, that have taken a heavy toll on his polling numbers. In Iowa yesterday, a reporter asked former House Speaker Gingrich if he felt he was being swift-boated (a reference to the notorious 2004 smear campaign against Sen. John Kerry), and Gingrich replied, “I feel Romney-boated.”

Senator John Kerry called in to talk to Don Imus today and sent some sharp jabs in the direction of his fellow Massachusian Mitt Romney, saying that Mitt “is sort of running against Mitt right now.” He went on to say there is uncertainty among voters about Romney’s political beliefs and that “pretty soon he is going to have more positions on healthcare than he has voters.”

With Americans increasingly becoming concerned about the state of income inequality in their country, a new report is showing that the disparity between the average American’s wealth and that of their Congressional representative is, to put it mildly, stark, with the Center for Responsive Politics reporting that nearly half of Congress is worth more than $1 million, and their total wealth increased 11% since 2009.

On Sunday morning’s Up with Chris Hayes, talk turned to discontent with the GOP field, exemplified by the Tabasco-hot speculation about a Chris Christie run for president. Hayes hilariously evoked liberal PTSD over the 2004 nomination of Sen. John Kerry, while Colorlines.com publisher Rinku Sen weighed in that Christie might be seen, by the Republican establishment, as a candidate who can attract voters of color because he’s “less obviously racist than the rest of the Republican presidential field.”

Last night, Rachel Maddow compared billionaire candidate Mitt Romney to fictional billionaire Thurston Howell III. If you’re looking for a rich-person caricature, there is no better person to cite than the oil baron of Gilligan’s Island. But it seems that 2011 is the year where both liberals and conservatives are pulling out the “You’re more like Thurston Howell than I am” card.

Oooo, Greta! You can always count on Greta Van Susteren‘s “GretaWire” blog to be — How to put it? — blunt as hell, and today’s offering is no different. Van Susteren took to her blog to address comments Senator John Kerry made on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, where he opined that, when it comes to covering the debt crisis and the economy, the media needs to “stop making all arguments equal.”

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry (D) appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe today to discuss, among other things, the state of the economy. As Kerry sees it, much of the national discussion about politics — debt talks included — is guided by the media’s insistence on lending equal time and, thus, credibility to all ideas, regardless of whether they happen to be absurd or misinformed.

Today, we take a video out of the vault to remind everyone that the 2012 elections are not yet the most uncivil in history, nor should we be wishing them to be anything proper or hushed. Back in the calm old days of 2004, when an incumbent president was facing a moderately flimsy challenge from a Democrat with charisma issues, the controversy of the political reached fever pitch during the Republican National Convention, which occurred at the height of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth movement (remember that?) and featured even a Democrat or two on the podium. Democrat Zell Miller was one of those Democrats.

While many on the left and right consider the rapid downfall of Rep. Anthony Weiner as a cautionary tale about men in power, Bill O’Reilly tonight posited that the issue is far more of a media story, since, with Rep. Weiner’s exit on the horizon, “the liberal propaganda machine is taking a huge hit.” His two liberal guests, however, didn’t seem to buy the argument that Rep. Weiner was an essential mouthpiece to the left, with Bob Beckel calling the idea “crazy.”

The gulf between the headlines Tuesday, which trumpeted President Obama “Losing His Cool” in the “Outburst Heard ‘Round the World,” and the Clark Kent-esque reality of Obama’s admonition to a Texas reporter, was comically underscored by the fact that current media it-boy Donald Trump treats every interview like he’s the king of a very crowded subway car. Why, then, did Obama’s demeanor cause such a stir, while Trump’s gets nary a mention?

During Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA 10) became the closest thing to a “You lie!” moment, tweeting during the address “Mr. President, you don’t believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism.” Shortly thereafter, I asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs if he had a reaction to the [...]

With the announcement Wednesday morning that White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs will soon be moving on to a role outside the White House, the next big question is: Who will succeed him? There have been a few names kicked around, but the smart money is on Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton, and with the [...]

MSNBC isn’t normally a network that you’d associate with being “in the tank” for former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, but a recent Hardball segment certainly makes it look that way. Leaving aside the relevance of hunting expertise to governing, Chris Matthews presents an edited clip of Palin downing a caribou on Sarah Palin’s Alaska, then holds forth on the image-making potential of the image, and finishes by praising Palin as a “dead shot.”

As a review of the full clip demonstrates, however, Palin’s true shooting prowess lies somewhere south of the Mendoza Line, which proves as much about her qualifications to be President as John Kerry‘s windsurfing proved about his: nada. (h/t Teresa Kopec)

There’s something amazing abou Bill O’Reilly. He can go on the most “liberal” show around or have on the most “liberal” guest, but you will still see a large amount of respect passing back and forth. It happened between he and Jon Stewart (their meetings being an annual highlight) and, tonight, it happened on Bill Maher’s Real Time. The meeting was so well matched that O’Reilly managed to get a couple moments of applause out of the Real Time audience (even though he called them applauding “seals”).

Harry Reid‘s surprising victory over Sharron Angle may turn out to be the one bright spot in an otherwise fairly dire night for the Dems. So really who can blame John Kerry for being jubulent and wanting to rub everyone’s face in it. And by everyone we really mean the media, which has been gleefully predicting an Angle win for weeks now.

In order to be a successful politician, a person has to exhibit several specific qualities: charisma, poise, a certain degree of shamelessness. Since a politician won’t be elected unless she knows how to sell herself, it also helps to have a healthy amount of self-esteem. But some politicians take self-regard to a whole new level—and now, writer Darren Garnick has conducted a semi-scientific study that reveals which elected officials can rightfully be named the vainest of them all.

In an article dramatically titled “As the World Burns,” Ryan Lizza gives readers of The New Yorker a lengthy account of Washington’s inept handling of climate change issues. Lizza also paints an unflattering portrait of Sen. Lindsey Graham, revealing that the Republican tried to expedite a climate change bill “before Fox News got wind of the fact that this was serious process.”

Jon Stewart unveiled a new segment last night in which he ran down the latest news of alleged corruption of elected officials that included John Kerry, Charlie Rangel and Rod Blagojevich. (Yes, some are sure to note that all of his targets are Democrats.) But if one needs evidence that we’ve entered a slow news cycle, just know that The Daily Show mocked of Kerry’s rhetorical style from his presidential run of six years ago!

O’Reilly Factor guest host Laura Ingraham and John Stossel discussed the scandal that bloomed last week over Sen. John Kerry who was accused of registering his family’s multi-million dollar yacht in Rhode Island so as to avoid Massachusetts’ high taxes. The two used this as a springboard to talk about other “Do as I say, not as I do” scandals involving liberals which both seemed to enjoy. They moved from one scandal to the next with the delight of a child sizing up her presents on Christmas morning.

A column in the Washington Post this Sunday is the latest in Dan Rather‘s campaign to get President Obama to convene “White House commission on public media” — an important step towards legitimizing the debate about the future of the news. But do we really need more government in our news?

Future former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post yesterday, in which she roundly dismissed the idea of cap-and-trade. The piece is generating quite a lot of discussion – but agree with her or not, cop to her expertise or not, Palin’s interconnectedness with energy policy is indisputable, making her voice newsworthy.