Mitt Romney easily won Nevada last night, but this past week has also been notable for Romney thanks to a surprise last-minute endorsement by famed recluse Donald Trump. Trump has now promised to drop the whole notion of running as an independent for the presidency if Romney ends up being the Republican nominee. But having the association between the two businessmen may not be working in Romney’s favor.

The White House is refuting a completely unsourced British tabloid story that alleges First Lady Michelle Obama went on a $50,000 lingerie shopping spree, but you’d never know it from looking at The Blaze‘s front page. Even though they’ve posted the White House’s denial, and their own original report was skeptical of the claim, their banner slideshow features a huge splash of Mrs. Obama that reads “She Spent How Much On Lingerie? $50K?”

Politico’s Dylan Byers today looks into a Reuters piece on Florida Senator Marco Rubio that has warranted at least five corrections. And, apparently, the article — which was described as one source as a “disgrace” — is bad enough that its writer and editor have been asked not to discuss it. The article — “Florida’s Rubio a star, but an unlikely VP pick” — had described Rubio as an unlikely pick for a GOP running mate due to his “financial issues” related to his home and student loans.

In this age of word-counting and laughter-tabulating for clicks, there are worse things you could do than assess the reading level of a president’s State of the Union address. Politico is pushing a study that shows that President Obama’s three SOTU speeches were written at an 8th-9th grade reading level, based on the Flesch-Kincaid standard. Aside from deciding what conclusions to draw from this, is this measure any less arbitrary than word-counting?

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?

Politico’s Darren Goode reports that President Obama will formally reject the Keystone XL pipeline. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns is expected to make the announcement at a 3pm briefing. Goode notes that White House and State Department officials “have not commented publicly Wednesday, but Tuesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney indicated the administration was concerned about the lack of an alternative route in Nebraska.”

I don’t know what it is they’re putting in the coffee over at MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner, but I want some. On this afternoon’s show, a segment on the GOP and populism started out loose, with Wagner editorializing under her breath during a Rick Santorum clip, then went full-tilt nuts when Dylan Ratigan began doling out amped-up mini-rants on campaign finance and the financial system. The segment ended with Wagner, in the midst of her outro, laughing, “Nobody’s even listening to me.”

It is difficult at this juncture in the political process to imagine that the 2012 Republican primaries can get more outrageous than they have been for the past year, and yet every day brings a new, unexpected twist to the drama. This morning comes the news that fashion icon/legendary drag queen RuPaul is getting in on the action in New Hampshire. Sick of being confused for Rep. Ron Paul, apparently, RuPaul is “campaigning” in a New Hampshire diner this morning (in Ferragamo!) to distinguish himself from the libertarian top-tier candidate.

Several months ago, Politico reporter Ben Smith lamented that his blog at the site was being trumped by his Twitter feed. Where once people would refresh his blog for updates, now they could simply follow him on Twitter and know what he was going to post before he posted it. The blog became secondary, slower – a formalized storehouse for organized pieces of information.

It appears that Newt Gingrich has created a monster. Comparing his own inability to get himself on the Republican primary ballot in Virginia to Pearl Harbor has opened the floodgates for a vast array of over-the-top comparisons, from Charles Krauthammer‘s reference to the Battle of Hastings to Ari Melber harkening Oklahoma City. So we understand how Mitt Romney couldn’t resist comparing this disaster to something, albeit a much more comical, tame scenario.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D- Neb.), who is finishing out his second term, is expected to announce his retirement as early as today, according to POLITICO’s John Bresnehan. Nelson, 70, has already been stuck in the crossfire of a hotly-contested battle between Republican and Democratic groups hoping to claim his seat for their side.

Politico‘s Ben Smith left many media heads askew in confusion when he announced that he was leaving the major political publication for Buzzfeed, previously most popularly known for its vast library of adorable animal videos. Howard Kurtz was certainly among those that didn’t see anything about this media move coming, and naturally had a few questions for the new editor in chief on his program yesterday.

Debate fatigue? A recent USA Today/Gallup poll released yesterday shows a whopping 70% of Americans are solidly opposed to the neverending reality show known as the “2012 presidential campaign,” or at least “can’t wait for it to be over.” The desperation for the campaigns to end transcends ideological boundaries, geography, and age, with men being slightly less averse to the whole thing.

Innnneresting news: Politico’s Ben Smith is leaving the site within the next few weeks to take on a new position at… BuzzFeed.

Former house speaker and GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich sat down with The Jewish Channel’s Steven Weiss to share some thoughts on the Palestine’s bid for statehood. Those thoughts were, essentially: “Hahahaha. Yeeeaaah right.” When asked whether he considers himself a Zionist when it comes to Israel, Gingrich responded that “I believe that the Jewish people have the right to have a state,” adding that “we have an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and were historically part of the Arab community” and who have “sustained this war against Israel.”

Since he last held a sustained lead in the Republican primary polls, way back in the summertime, there hasn’t been a whole lot of good news for establishment candidate Mitt Romney. However, according to Politico‘s Patrick Gavin, there is one area in which Romney is defeating his rivals handily. Gavin reports that the former Massachusetts Gov. is head-and-shoulders above the competition when it comes to mentions by late-night comics. Current frontrunner Newt Gingrich is running a distant 5th.

All day yesterday there was talk about a Politico/MSNBC relationship. This talk all started because of a poorly thought out, selective memory-riddled, a bridge- too-far piece in The Daily Caller by Jeff Poor. I’d hoped that someone would have come out and knocked Poor’s article down by now but nobody has so I guess I have to. I have no interest in whether Politico is a liberal publication or not because it doesn’t concern cable news. I only care about Poor’s attempt to tie Politico to MSNBC.

At noon eastern time today, the Alex Wagner era at MSNBC began with the debut of the former Politics Daily White House correspondent’s newshour, NOW. Joined by a whip-smart panel that included HDNet‘s Dan Rather, Politico‘s Maggie Haberman, and New York Magazine‘s John Heilemann, Wagner kicked off the show with an examination of how President Obama‘s handling of the debt supercommittee is playing with voters.

It’s about time the Herman Cain campaign start to reconsider their official slogan, Let [Campaign Manager Mark] Block be Block.” Block, the star of the now-infamous “Smoking” ad, went on Hannity tonight to give his take on the accusations before his candidate and delivered a totally unforced error by way of false family ties. Block told Sean Hannity that, after “connecting the dots,” the campaign had “confirmed” that one accuser, Karen Kraushaar‘s son worked for Politico, the publication that broke the story.

Rush Limbaugh has been providing us with no shortage of choice quotes throughout the Herman Cain sexual harassment scandal. So far, he’s reminded us that women can lie, liberals are racist, and that conservatives should defend Cain no matter what. Thus, it should be no surprise that he had quite a bit to say on today’s big press conference with the fourth Cain accuser. It’s also no surprise that it didn’t take him that long to realize the last name of the woman, Sharon Bialek, sounds kind of like “Buy a Lick.”

Hilarity ensued.

In a move sure to delight late-night comics, Politico is reporting that a $45,000 settlement to one of the women who accused embattled GOP frontrunner Herman Cain of sexual harassment was signed in September of 1999, or 9/99. As Colby Hall noted earlier today, though, the current controversy seems to only make Cain stronger, so perhaps this bit of nine irony will simply help raise awareness of Cain’s signature “9-9-9″ tax plan.

Mark Block is appearing so often on Fox News these days that some might mistake him for a paid contributor. Or maybe his appearances are paying off in different, more significant ways to the Herman Cain presidential campaign? News that Cain’s position in the GOP primary polls — and greatly increased donations to his campaign — seem to have come as a result of the increased attention brought about by Politico’s bombshell alleged sexual harassment report from last Sunday, seem to indicate more PR boom than bust.

Politico has unveiled even more specific sexual harassment allegations made against Herman Cain. In the late 1990s, a woman working with Cain at the National Restaurant Association notified two people at the time that the Republican frontrunner made “an unwanted sexual advance” towards her at a hotel tied to group’s events. According to sources who were aware of the incident, the woman was “livid and lodged a verbal complaint with an NRA board member that same night.”

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.”

The Herman Cain alleged sexual harassment story already has more wrinkles than a shar pei who slept in his clothes, but the latest one is a doozy. The Washington Times‘ Kerry Picket alleges that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel “is likely involved with the sexual harassment accuser attacks” against Herman Cain, on the strength of sourcing so thin, it has to wear snow shoes in the shower to keep from slipping down the drain.