Are there any politics junkies out there? The type that are getting all jittery as they anxiously refresh Twitter and flip between cable news channels? The poor souls who keep looking at their watch, wondering how they could possibly wait a full day to hear those sweet caucus results? Well, then I have a quick hit for you; the results for the Iowa Coffee Bean Caucus. Consider this the methadone to tonight’s black tar heroin.

On CNN’s Starting Point Tuesday morning, Soledad O’Brien and Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann got into a tussle over “gotcha questions” ahead of today’s caucuses. “You have taken a lot of flak for some of your very strong social issues, where you stand on them, and I want to talk about some of them,” O’Brien pressed. “Your stance on homosexuality — and want to read a little bit of what you said — You said, at the Educators Conference in 2004, ‘Gays live a very sad life,’ and that ‘it’s part of Satan’ And that’s quote. You’ve taken a lot of flak for that. Do you pull back on any of that?”

Michele Bachmann has a new ad airing in the lovely state of Iowa (Lucky Iowans. I’m sure they were just dying for another campaign ad right about now). The ad, her first television commercial in months, is called “America’s Iron Lady” and it’s exactly what you think it is from that title.

…unless you’re imagining some kind of super hero thing with Bachmann as a crime fighting woman made of metal. In that case it’s nothing like what you think.

As Kimberly Guilfoyle put it in the opening of today’s Five, “the knives are out for Ron Paul.” With his Iowa poll numbers surging, the other GOP candidates have gone on the offensive, providing a number of colorful, anti-Paul quotes. The Five hosts had some cutting utensils of their own, discussing how Paul’s less mainstream ideas were “sinking” his chances of becoming President or even getting the nomination.

The story of how Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s top man in Iowa somehow ended up defecting to the Rep. Ron Paul camp several hours after attending a Bachmann campaign rally is still a work in process, slowly evolving out of a he-said, she-said that now includes rebuttal from the candidate herself. Rep. Bachmann and campaign manager Susan Geddes spoke to Eric Bolling today on Your World and once again insisted that she had personally heard from Sorenson that he was paid to defect, the same claim Geddes subsequently made to Bolling.

Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson may have become one of the most important characters in the Iowa Republican primary saga literally overnight with his somewhat surprising appearance at a Rep. Ron Paul rally last night, endorsing that candidate while still serving as the State Campaign Co-Chair of Michele Bachmann for President. He had more than a few questions to answer today to Megyn Kelly, who asked him several difficult questions about his move, including whether he was paid to make the switch.

On the tail of Rep. Michele Bachmann herself denouncing rival Rep. Ron Paul as “dangerous” on Fox News, it appears that at least one of her campaign co-chairs seems to disagree. Yes, it’s true: Iowa State Senator (and Iowa Bachmann Campaign Co-Chair) Kent Sorenson appeared at a Rep. Paul rally earlier tonight, and endorsed a candidate on whose campaign he is not on an official leader.

We may have seen the first glimmers of the “Santorum Surge” as the non-stop Rep. Ron Paul coverage takes it toll on the candidate, but as Rep. Paul continues to be the frontrunner, the onslaught of “is Ron Paul electable?” questions trudges on. This round of questioning went to Rep. Michele Bachmann, once the frontrunner in Iowa herself, on tonight’s O’Reilly Factor, where Eric Bolling asked her whether she could vote for Rep. Paul. She mostly refused to entertain the question.

When you’re running to be the next President of the United States, it’s generally a good idea to make sure people are able to vote for you. But in a surprise twist in this already twisted-up campaign, both Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry will not be on the ballot when Virginia Republican voters go to cast their vote for their party’s nominee, meaning the primary in that state will boil down to a contest between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

Yesterday, a gay robot somehow managed to free himself from the set of Bravo’s The A List and gain access to a Michele Bachmann rally in Iowa.

GOP candidate Michele Bachmann was a guest on Fox and Friends Wednesday morning, and confirmed reports that she had received a phone call from Evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats, asking her to drop out and throw her support to either Rick Santorum or Rick Perry.

Michele Bachmann appeared on Meet the Press earlier today, and in the middle of talking about her chances in Iowa next month, David Gregory brought up the uncomfortable exchange she had with Newt Gingrich during last week’s Republican debate. Gingrich accused Bachmann of “not getting her facts correct,” and Bachmann responded by calling his comments “outrageous,” insisting she is a serious candidate for the presidency.

There was something for everyone in Thursday night’s Fox News Republican debate, from Newt Gingrich‘s “history lessons” to Rick Santorum… existing. The Red Eye panel took a swing at recapping the debate last night, and covered all the bases– from the fashion sense of the “pervy dude at the Kiwanis club who corners you and has had too many beers” to the sweets Greg Gutfeld thinks of when he listens to Rep. Ron Paul.

It isn’t every day Rep. Michele Bachmann gets some vocal praise from most of the panel on Up with Chris Hayes, but this morning, her attacks on Newt Gingrich for his potential lobbying work for Freddie Mac were met with positive reviews, with host Chris Hayes noting she was “very effectively pressing the case against Newt Gingrich” in a way that made him particularly vulnerable.

Meghan McCain is no fan of Newt Gingrich– this she has made as public as can be. With new attacks surfacing at Gingrich for his treatment of Rep. Michele Bachmann a Thursday’s debate– namely, that such treatment was sexist– McCain appeared on MSNBC today to confirm that his behavior “can obviously be interpreted as sexist,” and that, while she was no Rep. Bachmann, she had been on the other side of it herself.

Rep. Ron Paul may stick to advancing his own positions during debates and letting others do the sniping, but he took a detour on last night’s Tonight Show in a rapid-fire round where Jay Leno asked him to comment on each candidate in term. While he had some nice things to say about Jon Huntsman, his reactions to Newt Gingrich and Rep. Michele Bachmann were particularly harsh, the latter of which he noted “she doesn’t like Muslims… she wants to go get ‘em.”

During Thursdays Republican presidential debate, Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann came to blows over national security. “With all due respect to Ron Paul, I think I have never heard a more dangerous answer for American security than the one that we just heard from Ron Paul,” Bachmann exclaimed. “Why were we flying a drone over Iran?” Paul responded. “Why do we have to bomb so many countries?”

Donald Trump phoned in to Don Imus‘ Fox Business Network show on Friday morning, and he lit into Michele Bachmann for her decision to skip his Dec. 27 debate. “You know who I’m very disappointed in? Michele Bachmann. She’s come up to see me four times. Four times. She’d call me, she’d ask me for advice, she said I should be her Vice Presidential… you know… if she wins, she’d like to think about me for the Vice Presidency, all of these things,” Trump said.

Who: Richard Just, Jodi Kantor, Ryan Lizza, moderated by Franklin Foer
What: “The Year of the Herminator: A Panel of Reporters Explain the Weirdest Republican Primary Ever”
Where: New America NYC
When: December 8, 2011
Thumbs: Way Up

Did you know that, in America, Jewish people celebrate a winter holiday that isn’t Christmas? It’s called the Republican Jewish Coalition Forum, Jon Stewart explained, and it helps Jewish Republicans decide who among the extremely Christian GOP candidates loves them the most.

CNN is reporting that Michele Bachmann will not participate in Donald Trump’s debate. That leaves Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich as the sole debate participants.

Michele Bachmann spoke with Fox and Friends this morning and expressed reservations over making a decision to participate in the Donald Trump moderated Newsmax debate scheduled for December 27. At present, only Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have said they will attend, with Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney refusing.

On Wednesday, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly tackled the controversy and discussion surrounding GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann‘s recent talk with the eight-year-old son of lesbian parents. O’Reilly echoed the assessment of others (including our own Jon Bershad) who felt the little boy’s mother was essentially using her son to make a political point. He invited gay activist Sally Kohn onto the program to discuss it further.

Alternate title: “NO GUESTLOVE FOR QUESTLOVE?” So. It would appear that Questlove, the drummer and front-man for Late Night house band The Roots, is having his freedom to choose the show’s songs seriously curbed as a consequence of choosing to introduce recent guest Michele Bachmann with Fishbone’s “Lyin’ Ass Bitch.” He’ll now have to have [...]

They’ve been having some big gets over at GBTV recently with Glenn Beck getting interviews yesterday with both Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann. Eagle-eyed fans will notice a slight difference in tone between the chats however. While Beck started his Gingrich interview by warning the candidate that he had serious concerns about him, he opened one of the two Bachmann interviews he did (one on his web show and one on the radio) by admitting, in full disclosure, that she was his current choice for President. Therefore, it shouldn’t be too surprising that the bit in the radio interview where he pressed her on her now-infamous confrontation with an eight-year-old son of lesbian mothers ended up just being a “Prove Bachmann’s Totally Not a Homophobe” contest.