With last week’s unsurprising failure of the deficit “Supercommittee” came a threat by President Obama to “veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending” triggered by the committee’s failure. at today’s White House briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney quashed speculation by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) that the President had left some “wiggle room” to rejigger those triggered cuts away from defense.

ABC’s Jake Tapper, reporting for his former show This Week, unleashed a devastating account of what transpired during President Obama’s overseas trip. And by devastating, I mean all Tapper did was list several goals of the trip that Obama failed to accomplish and show a crestfallen Obama plainly say “instead of hitting home-runs, sometimes we’re going to hit singles.” Wow, what a difference two years makes.

It is a poorly-kept secret that President Obama is a poker aficionado. If the administration’s new posture on the soon-to-expire Bush tax cuts are any indication, he’s a lousy one. Senior adviser David Axelrod, in an interview with Huffington Post, has signaled that the administration is all but ready to fold the strongest hand they’re likely to get in post-midterm Washington. While the President favors extending the middle class portion of the Bush tax cuts, while allowing those for the wealthiest Americans to expire, Axelrod has already resorted to the fallback position of a temporary extension for the rich. While that’s probably the best outcome, the timing of this move is bad politics, and will lead to bad policy.

Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corporation, the parent company for Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, recently made a $1 million contribution to the Republican Governors Association, a partisan 527 designed to bolster GOP gubernatorial campaigns.

Facing immediate and ferocious criticism, News Corp. responded by citing their sympathy with the RGA’s “pro-business agenda”. Articles about the transaction were similarly quick to note that other companies, even other media companies, have given money to the RGA as well as Democratic committees.

One week ago, while candidates around the country were in the midst of a last-minute push to get voters to the polls, it’s safe to say that Alvin Greene wasn’t. The nominee of the South Carolina Democratic Party for the U.S. Senate won by 17 percentage points, took 42 of 46 counties, and garnered over 100,000 votes. Yet no one has turned up a single TV ad, radio spot, piece of mail in which Mr. Greene presents himself to the voting public – just one lonely flyer in the possession of the candidate. So, how did he get elected?

Conservative media watchdog site Newsbusters called out the Washington Post yesterday for “Assaulting” Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell with “Seven Hit Pieces in One Day,” when all he did was declare a celebration of an imaginary, slavery-free Confederacy.

Last week’s health care summit was largely the result of outrage over the lack of promised transparency in health care reform. While that criticism focused on conference negotiations over the health care bill, the true failure of transparency occurred in the spring and summer of 2009, as the White House met with leaders from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. I asked Robert Gibbs about it Friday. Listen carefully to what I asked, and to his response:

At today’s White House briefing, the subject of Senator Jim Bunning‘s obstruction of an extension of unemployment and COBRA benefits came up several times. Bunning held up the bill despite the fact that his own leadership doesn’t support his objection, and when a Democratic Senator implored him to drop it, replied “Tough shit.”

As one of the few non-conservatives embedded at this year’s CPAC, I was afforded a point of view vastly different from most outsiders, and I learned some surprising things. First, there was the stealth Rachel Maddow love-fest, and the full-throated jeering of an anti-gay speaker. One other big surprise was the fact that ACORN video auteur James O’Keefe inspired widespread resentment among CPAC insiders.

OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show last night, and did little to advance his party’s attempts to politicize terrorism trials. While most are focusing on his self-inflicted “Richard Reid was a US citizen” wound, as well as Stewart’s “don’t let reality get in the way” zing, I found myself audibly cheering for Stewart as he described his attitude toward terrorism trials in New York.

An exchange on The Ed Show tonight made me laugh out loud, as it will anyone who has been even casually following politics the last few years. Whether you lean left or right will determine the level of bitterness, but laugh, you will. Ed Schultz was discussing the filibuster, and the way those cockadoodie Republicans keep using it to jam things up. Enter Senator Tom Harkin, who has a great idea how to get things moving again. Then, Ed asks him if any Republicans are on board. Put your drink down.

See what I did there? Hot off the Youtubes comes the trailer for “Jersey Shore XXX,” a porn spoof of MTV’s already-self-parodying “Jersey Shore,” and featuring the adventures of characters like “The Predicament.”

I’m too tired to dish out double entendres about stiff competition or how the shoot was hard on the cast, but I do have one observation to make after you watch the nudity-free, but profanity-laced, trailer:

This is what happens when your late-night show tapes at 5 in the afternoon. Last night Jon Stewart took on Keith Olbermann‘s 3-day Scott-war against the newly-elected Republican Senator from Massachusetts, incinerating the Countdown host’s Special Comment segment along the way. In a case of life imitating art, Olbermann parodied the Special Comment hours after Stewart taped his takedown, saying that yesterday’s Supreme Court decision legalizing corporate campaign contributions was worse than the Dred Scott decision.

At a Scott Brown rally in Worcester yesterday, a supporter of Brown’s yelled a suggestion that they “shove a curling iron up (Martha Coakley’s) butt.” The clip is gaining traction, though, because of Brown’s reaction to the outburst. Initial reports had Brown smiling at the comment, but the video shows he may have responded by saying “We can do this.” Or not.

Even though the release of Game Change has made it seem like a relic, it was only Friday when former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani stated that there had been “no domestic attacks under Bush. Robert Gibbs responded with a dose of reality, but he hadn’t had a chance to react to Rudy’s later clarification (through a spokesman). I asked Gibbs about it today, and he just seemed glad that Giuliani had cleared up the most glaring omission.

At today’s White House briefing, Huffington Post’s Sam Stein asked Robert Gibbs about Rudy Giuliani‘s remarks on ABC’s Good Morning America. Gibbs succeeded where George Stephanopoulos failed, calling Rudy out for his inconsistent statements on civilian justice for terrorists, and observing that much of what Hizzoner said didn’t “quite gibe with reality.” You might say he took Giuliani to Schooliani.

The right-wing echo chamber is gearing up to take another shot at unseating “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings. Their last volley, in which a smear involving NAMBLA made it onto Fox News, failed to gain Van Jones-style traction, so they’ve dressed an even weaker smear up as a report by “independent researchers,” and slapped it under and audacious headline.

The senators of this great nation have agreed to give up their Saturday to cast the first vote for health care reform with the initial roll call expected around 8 p.m., according to the Associated Press. Where should those engaged citizens hoping to tune in for coverage of the debate turn? It all depends on your obsession level with the United States Senate, health care reform and CSPAN.

Outgoing White House Communications Director Anita Dunn made a parting strafing run at Fox News on Friday, calling the network out for airing misleading crowd footage, jumping the gun on an announcement of a Presidential interview and letting its opinion tail wag the news dog. In doing so, she heavily name-checked her should-be successor, The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart. Fox News’ spokespeople responded swiftly, passively and aggressively.

At 11:15 pm last night, the House health care reform bill passed by a vote of 220-215 to elated cheers from the Democrats. There were 39 Democratic “Nay” votes, and one Republican “Yea,” Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La). The Senate still has to pass its version of the bill, but for now, this is a moment of celebration for Democrats and proponents of health care reform. We’ve got video of the bill’s passage, and a statement from the President.

Yesterday, Mediaite offered a sneak peek at Fox News’ Griff Jenkins ambushing controversial Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fl) outside his office. The first thing I thought when I saw this was that Grayson’s repeated demands that Jenkins make an appointment constituted some particularly weak sauce. On last night’s O’Reilly Factor, Bill O’Reilly and Jenkins called Grayson out for hiding behind his press flack, and I couldn’t agree more.

The Huffington Post previewed an ad, earlier this week, that euphemistically asked whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has the “toughness” to get a public health insurance option passed. Mediaite has been trying for several days to get a statement from Senator Reid’s office, and we finally have it. They must have needed the time so they could make it extra-tough.

With the resignation of Van Jones and the sinking of ACORN, the right-wing noise machine sits on a mighty perch. The mainstream media shows every sign of capitulating to their new pimp, at the ready to swarm whatever prey is selected for them. The latest victim-to-be is the Obama administration’s “Safe Schools Czar,” Kevin Jennings. Before I get to deconstructing the mountain of smears against Kevin Jennings, let me tell you what he has done.

Former future Sarah Palin son-in-law Levi Johnston floated the idea of posing for Playgirl in a pricelessly awkward video for Vanity Fair last month, but now, the plan is taking shape. I got the big news via Jake Tapper‘s Twitter feed, where he correctly observed, “I think I speak for America when i say ‘Playgirl still exists?’”

At first blush, you might think they’re trying to fend off more recent translations like the “Good News Bible,” or some ultra-PC Gay Bible. Nope. The Conservative Bible Project, despite all evidence to the contrary, is not a joke. The “brainchild” of the Conservapedia, the project seeks to translate the King James Bible into a version that’s devoid of “liberal bias.”