>Has Ruth Williams become the Joe The Plumber of the 2012 campaign? According to ABC political reporter Emily Friedman, Mitt Romney namedropped the woman he handed a wad of cash to during his stump speech in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

During his Commentary segment on Face the Nation today, Bob Schieffer bemoaned the influence of money in politics and how members of Congress and lobbyists are gaming the system in order to make personal profit in sometimes questionable ways. Schieffer revealed that he is often asked why anyone would want to subject themselves to being part of a “mean” system when they run for political office. He argued that getting into a race means you automatically get lots of money, and even someone with little experience can amass a fortune in just a few shorts months on the campaign trail.

Back in 2004, in an effort to rebuild Iraq, the United States flew at least 20 planes full of money — tightly-wrapped stacks of $100 bills — into the country. In total, $12 billion was airlifted to Iraq, all in cash. This June, when the books were closing on Development Fund for Iraq, which was under the rule of the Coalitional Provisional Authority (which dissolved in 2004), it was reported that $6.6 billion of the cash was missing. The cash wasn’t America’s; it was money from seized Iraqi assets, oil sales, and surpluses. We were just, essentially, returning it to them.

On her show this evening, CNN’s Erin Burnett and her guest, Newsweek/Daily Beast columnist John Avalon, discussed GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain’s “momentum” as he continues his campaign.

The two circled back to Burnett’s interview with Cain, during which he shared that he only has “several hundred thousand dollars” at his disposal.

Who: Michael Lewis, interviewed by Ira Glass What: “Michael Lewis in Conversation with Ira Glass” Where: 92nd St. Y When: February 3, 2011 Thumbs: Up It’s a subject some of us choose not to discuss or think about anymore. Not because it makes us uncomfortable, but because it’s been exhausted over the past few years. [...]

It’s been widely reported that Time Inc. has been planning a rather significant round of lay-offs before the end of the year. The conventional wisdom around New York publishing circles was that the lay-offs would be coming after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case, as a Time Inc. spokesperson confirmed exclusively to Mediaite: “Yes, sadly there are layoffs today across a number of titles at Time Inc.