They grow up so fast, don’t they? Online political media giant Politico turns five years old today, and to celebrate, the site posted a video roast by some quotable notables in the political media world. While the site has arguably earned the right to toot its own horn at least once every half-decade, did they really have to overshadow the birthday of Saved By The Bell actress Tiffani-Amber Thiessen?

As the Herman Cain sexual harassment allegations continue to monopolize the news cycle, allegations, particularly from conservatives, that the allegations are race-based continue to fly. On CBS today, however, one prominent black conservative went out of her way to warn that race was not the way to fight these claims. In an interview with The Early Show, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice weighed in, expressing disgust at the entire idea of talking about race at all. “I don’t care much for incendiary language,” she sighed, warning that “it’s not good for the country” for anyone– left or right– to “play the race card.”

To the untrained eye it might seem that Norah O’Donnell of CBS should be buying a beer for White House Press Secretary Jay Carney right now to make up for her hardcore follow-up questioning at this afternoon’s press briefing on how the United States would be reacting to the attempted assassination attempt of Adel A. Al-Jubeir, the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States. Mediaite’s own White House reporter Tommy Christopher assures me this kind of questioning is routine at White House briefings.

During Monday’s White House briefing, CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Norah O’Donnell asked Press Secretary Jay Carney about criticism that President Obama‘s American Jobs Act tour is nothing but a political campaign. Carney responded with a bit of comic timing that got laughs from the press corps, saying “You’re absolutely right, it is a [...]

Ready for a trip down Memory Lane? Face the Nation held an interestingly anachronistic debate today on the Obama jobs program between former RNC chair Ed Gillespie and former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe, where the two quarreled over the optics of President Obama’s vacation and Congress’ obstinacy in passing a jobs bill. Host Norah O’Donnell led the discussion, wherein the two agreed the time for talk was over, but, predictably, differed on who exactly was doing the useless talking.

At Monday’s White House briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney fielded a lot of questions about how, exactly, the new debt ceiling deal constitutes a “compromise.” As CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell pointed out, Democrats “got nothing.”

Carney pointed to the measure’s “Super Congress” committee as an opportunity to take a second crack at a balanced approach, and to the trigger provisions as an incentive for Congress to reach such a deal. I asked Carney if it was realistic to think that Tea Party congressmen would vote for revenue increases, even in the face of defense cuts.

It was a question asked repeatedly during today’s White House press briefing, but some conservatives are lashing out at CBS’ Norah O’Donnell for asking Press Secretary Jay Carney how the Democrats benefit, if at all, from the final debt deal. The controversy began with a post from Commentary Magazine entitled “CBS’s O’Donnell to Carney: ‘We Got Nothing,’” which was technically a correct quote, except Commentary omitted some key words preceding that statement: “You have Democrats saying…”

Journalist and Fox News commentator Bernie Goldberg spoke with Bill O’Reilly Monday evening about Norah O’Donnell‘s appointment as the White House correspondent for CBS News. The conversation focused specifically, of course, on how O’Donnell’s liberalism would play into her new position, with O’Reilly opining that O’Donnell frequently engages in snarky “digs” at the right.

With the announcement last week that long time MSNBC star Norah O’Donnell is jumping ship to CBS, many insiders are now asking what is going on over at the Peacock network? On air talent jumping between networks is nothing new but the sheer number of recent defectors both on air and off from NBC News and CNBC has to make you wonder whether there is something bigger at play here.

Before NBC’s Norah O’Donnell jumps to CBS, she’s squeezing in some time on the Chris Matthews Show and sharing some unknown facts from a recent NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll of Republican primary voters. Chris Matthews wondered whether candidates like Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman would be hurt by their Mormonism with Republican voters, yet O’Donnell revealed some candidates are hurt even more by a different characteristic.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Norah O’Donnell’s departure to CBS may be the biggest defection NBC has endured in nearly two decades – since Brian Ross jumped to ABC in 1994…and certainly since Chris Wallace jumped to ABC a few years before that.

I know, I know…”What about Katie Couric? What about Soledad O’Brien? What about Campbell Brown?” The difference between those defections and O’Donnell’s is how it impacts NBC long term. There was little to no collateral damage done to NBC when Couric, O’Brien, and Brown left. Today and Weekend Today easily survived and flourished. But O’Donnell’s departure creates a long term hole for NBC to address – who will succeed Andrea Mitchell?

In a major move, MSNBC’s chief Washington correspondent, Norah O’Donnell has decided to jump networks, signing with CBS News as White House correspondent. As Politico’s Mike Allen writes, “it’s a stunning shakeup for both the front row of the White House briefing room and for Washington’s intensely competitive network news bureaus.”

Chris Matthews and his Sunday morning panel evaluated the upcoming presidential election and Matthews stated about the potential Republican nominees, “every one of the top candidates comes with a potentially huge flaw.” As Matthews seemed truly interested in learning whether any of the candidates could be appealing enough to win enthusiastic support from conservatives, the panel seemed to be largely in agreement: this is a very weak Republican field of candidates.

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?”

Maureen Dowd‘s column yesterday suggested that Obama’s decision to involve the U.S. military in Libya came primarily from senior female advisers (namely Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and National Security Adviser Samantha Power.) This spawned an interesting discussion on Morning Joe, which lead Pat Buchanan to suggest that women in the administration were making an emotional argument in their advice to get the U.S. involved. Hoo boy!

In the battle of the presidential memoirs, George W. Bush is gaining some significant ground on his predecessor, selling almost as many copies of Decision Points in two months as President Bill Clinton sold of his in two years. Why would Americans be so eagerly purchasing the product? One suggestion on MSNBC is that, maybe, people just hate Bush more.

MSNBC’s favorite policy wonk, well at least host Norah O’Donnell‘s favorite wonk, liberal Washington Post reporter Ezra Klein was asked to comment whether Republicans reading the Constitution aloud in the next session of Congress was merely a gimmick. Klein said it was, but also elaborated on his view of how the Constitution is interpreted.

President Ronald Reagan keeps popping up as the historical touch point in this year’s election cycle. It has been noted by more than one media pundit that President Obama‘s numbers are not as low as Reagan’s were at this state of his presidency and on Sunday Chris Matthews wondered if Obama would be able to pull out the same last minute turnaround Reagan did with his “stay the course” message. Answer: No.

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.

The proposed Islamic center several blocks from Ground Zero has fallen into a perfect political storm of national tragedy, touchy international relations, and mid-August heat, and everyone with an opinion on the matter seems to be taking their arguments to the extreme. The latest to seemingly make an outrageous comparison is MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell, who uses an analogy that involves those who oppose the construction of the mosque and the masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks.

Here’s a new entry into the GOP 2012 presidential field (and by new I mean so old he’s new again): Jeb Bush. On his show this morning Chris Matthews pondering “who might beat Barack Obama?” This of course is the question plaguing the Republican Party. For all the attention and hoopla surrounding Sarah Palin no one is really convinced that even if she could snag the Republican nomination she has any shot at beating President Obama in the general. But Jeb might.

It’s not hard to believe that some people inside the White House are taking the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico very seriously, but on Morning Joe this morning, Norah O’Donnell may have exaggerated that pressure when she suggested she knew people in the White House who couldn’t get to sleep because they kept seeing the gushing oil in their nightmares.

Countless talk show segments, op-ed columns and blog posts in recent weeks have focused on whether President Obama is emoting enough over the oil crisis in the Gulf, and/or whether or not he is angry enough. Former Clinton press secretary (and consultant on the West Wing) Dee Dee Myers thinks it would be risky for Obama to get too angry because…he’s black.

This morning on the Chris Matthews Show, Time’s Joe Klein said that what is different between today’s Tea Partiers and past anti-government movements is the presence of Fox News, “which allows its commentators like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck to rouse the Tea Party”, and a GOP that is lacking in a “responsible, moderate” leadership. Not to mention, Beck and Palin (and Rush Limbaugh) are close to committing sedition. Video after the jump.

On the O’Reilly Factor last night, Bernie Goldberg did not shy away from calling out the reverse racist ways of those who he considers the “liberal elite media bubble.” In attacking MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell‘s calling out of comments made earlier by Newt Gingrich, Goldberg implied that nearly all journalists “see racism everywhere.” Video after the jump.