On CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday morning, host Howard Kurtz gave Politico reporter Jonathan Martin a grilling worthy of Bobby Flay over whether the online paper had enough to publish its story on sexual harassment allegations against GOP frontrunner Herman Cain. The answer to that question was obvious, and gave short shrift to several more interesting questions that Kurtz touched on, but that didn’t quite connect.

Politico‘s Jonathan Martin reports that one of the women accusing Herman Cain of sexual harassment received a settlement of approximately $45,000, which is “significantly more than the two or three months’ salary Cain initially recalled the woman obtained.”

At a National Press Club event in Washington, DC this afternoon, GOP frontrunner Herman Cain delivered the response to Politico‘s sexual harassment story that his campaign should have given in the first place, admitting that he was, in fact, accused of sexual harassment while CEO of the National Restaurant Association, that the allegations were false, and that he was unaware of any financial settlement. He even cited Politico’s story in his own defense, the same story that his campaign attacked as a thinly-sourced smear.

On Fox & Friends Tuesday morning, co-host Steve Doocy teased a segment on Politico‘s “Is Rick Perry Dumb?” article by calling them “that lefty website,” and wondering if Politico had ever run a headline like that about a Democrat. In the actual segment, Doocy asked conservative radio host Laura Ingraham to weigh in on the article, and she didn’t really push back against Politico‘s alleged bias, or even the notion that Perry might be dumb.

Politico published an article today that openly questioned whether or not Texas Governor Rick Perry was an intellectual light weight, or pointedly, is he dumb? Megyn Kelly followed up on this report today, asking conservative news analyst Michelle Malkin whether or not it was a fair critique of the GOP front runner. In response, Malkin damned Perry somewhat with a faint defense, predictably calling it a left-wing media smear, then following up by saying “compared to what?!”

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele pressed senior Obama adviser David Axelrod on the Politico piece that suggested Team Obama’s strategy would be to paint GOP hopeful Mitt Romney as “weird.”

Axelrod called the Politico story “garbage,” and agreed with Steele that any Obama campaign staffer who used such an attack against Romney would be fired. For now, at least, we’re still talking about how “weird” Romney is.

According to a new Politico piece, President Obama’s reelection team are zeroing in on Mitt Romney as the guy they’ll most likely have to beat come next November, and in interviewing about a dozen Obama advisers, the common narrative thread was Romney’s “weirdness.”

Politico is reporting that Michael Steele will be making a major announcement on Monday morning about whether or not he will run for re-election as Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Some members of the Republican party reportedly have the long knives out for Sarah Palin. Jonathan Martin reports that certain GOP candidates are less than thrilled with Palin because…sometimes she is less than organized.

With the 2012 elections less than two years away and the campaign cycles growing increasingly longer, Wolf Blitzer today took on the GOP primary field and, particularly, the fact that so many of them work for Fox News. Should they run, their exclusivity contracts wouldn’t just affect direct competitors like CNN– local stations and apolitical stations like C-SPAN would need approval from Fox News to use footage of their employee-candidates, too.

During a segment on Hardball yesterday Chris Matthews suddenly took what was a routine conversation with Politico’s Jonathan Martin about Dick Cheney’s recent criticisms of President Obama and turned it into a rather pointed criticism of Politico’s seemingly cozy relationship with Cheney.

According to a new Clarus Research poll of people who follow the news either “closely” or “very closely,” Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is the most popular White House staffer (50% approval vs. 33% disapproval). President Obama edged Gibbs’ approval number with 51%, but had a 45% disapproval rating. That gives Gibbs a 17-6 advantage in favorability. (h/t Ben Smith via Jonathan Martin) Update: Below the fold, Robert Gibbs’ reaction to this honor.