video Eric Massa may be gone but he is certainly not yet forgotten (though probably a number of people are giving it their best shot). More troubling, at least for the Dems, is that his hangover effect (and we're not just talking "tickle fights" here) may be months in the curing. At least that's what George Will thinks. (more...)

Alex Pareene over at Gawker noted this week that the Eric Massa tickle-sex scandal is the union of every absurd political thing to happen in American history this century (sex, corruption, health care, Rush Limbaugh's racism, etc.). He was wrong-- until now. The last piece of the puzzle, disgraced former governor of Illinois and news cycle hero Rod Blagojevich, has decided to enter the fray in an interview with Fred Thompson, the former actor who sleepily made a run for the Republican nomination to the presidency in 2008 and apparently has a radio show now. And he knows exactly what Massa is talking about when he says Rahm Emanuel harassed him nude in the showers of the Congressional gym. (more...)

video With any luck, and to the great relief of everyone but David Paterson, Eric Massa will have wound his way out of the news cycle by the end of the day, likely never to be heard from again (or one hopes, at least...except perhaps in passing 'tickle fight' references). In the meantime there is the a bit of a clean-up job that needs to be done by Glenn Beck. Something which he got started on during his radio show this morning, in what could be called 'Ridicule Massa Wednesday.' (more...)

Eric Massa's tour de 'tickle' hour with Glenn Beck last night has left the host with some unlikely bedfellows (no pun intended!). While, one can only imagine the enjoyment of Rahm Emanuel as it became clearer and clearer that actually, Massa had no intention of accusing the Dems of coercion and conspiracy, an equally unlikely ally voiced her support on Anderson Cooper last night. (more...)

video At today's White House press conference, Robert Gibbs was asked about Rahm Emanuel's unique lobbying style (au naturel) to Eric Massa, D-NY, who left office yesterday amidst an ethics inquiry over possible sexual misconduct. Gibbs was also asked to further explain the administration's position on Massa's claims that his decision to step down is a result of a conspiracy by the DNC to push him out. Video of the exchange is below:

your moment of glenn Is Glenn Beck about to dig himself into a rather large hole? Word went out earlier today that (now former) Congressman Eric Massa would be a guest on Beck's powerhouse show for the full hour tomorrow. Tonight we got a bit of a preview of the tone that interview is likely to take. Short version: Eric Massa -- despite his admittedly questionable (salty) behavior...not something Beck would "condone" -- is the victim of Democratic conspiracy. AND? Get this: "I'm not saying he is as pure as the driven snow, I don't know, I don't know the guy, but this is a moment that will decide the course of this nation, possibly." (more...)

The Washington Post seems to be under the impression that they are being attacked for some sort of editorial conspiracy involving Rahm Emanuel and his competence as White House Chief of Staff. After a week where Emanuel became the subject of three of the paper’s major stories—two opinion pieces with opposing views and a front-page news item suggesting anonymous Washington insiders were upset Emanuel’s advice was not being taken—the Post has been taking fire from both sides for alternately undermining the President and attacking one of his top advisers. The confusion has brought about one of the more bizarre columns by ombudsman Andrew Alexander defending his paper: the Post is too disorganized and littered with unreliable quotes to have an agenda, so please drop the conspiracy theories. (more...)

audio Where to start. The latest chapter in the Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) surprise departure (retirement) from Congress unfolded yesterday when Massa announced during a radio show appearance (audio below) that ethics inquiry into a complaint that a male staffer in his office was made "uncomfortable" by Massa is actually the result of the Democratic Party wanting to get him out of the Health Care vote. Also? Rahm Emanuel once pushed him around naked in a shower. (more...)

Technically speaking President Obama did not tell his staff to stop reading the blogosphere, nor Politico for that matter, but it's not hard to draw a connection between the president's warning to staff not to get "absorbed in the Washington finger-pointing and intrigue" and the former two, who tend to feed on that very intrigue and finger-pointing. (more...)

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has officially become the Washington Post's Apple of Discord, tossed into the op-ed section and starting a civil war. After running a piece by Dana Milbank suggesting that most of the current problems facing the Obama Administration were a product of the president not listening to his Chief of Staff, it published a counterpoint by David Broder suggesting that the piece and rumors that begot it are a product of some social maneuvering on the part of Emanuel-- who "likes to win"-- and his friends in Congress, and suggesting Obama could have avoided his problems by listening to his adviser is directly undermining his authority. Matt Yglesias chimes in with a column of his own at the American Prospect proposing a novel approach to the debate: what problems, exactly, are the Democrats trying to blame on each other at all? (more...)

Fox News analyst Sarah Palin continued her tap-dance-like rationalization about who can and cannot use the word 'retard' last night on The O'Reilly Factor. "I want to give you a chance to clarify something I've been getting a lot of mail on," said Bill O'Reilly. Alas, I'm not sure clarification is what he ended up getting but here's part of what Palin had to say (video below). (more...)

Way to behave like grown-ups, folks! Apparently, the GOP.com is continuing on its bumbling way through social media land -- okay, okay, this is a definite improvement. Here is the latest installment: Valentines day cards from your favorite Democrats! Truth be told, some of the choices are pretty funny -- I particularly like the Salahis, though the Reid one is pushing the envelope at bit -- or would maybe be funny (and not totally juevenile) if they were, say, the creation of some college kid's website and not the product of the official website of the RNC. Perhaps we are supposed to conclude they are one and the same. That said, it's a pretty genius way to plump up the RNC email lists. Some choices below:

video The No-Spin Zone has met its match. Bill O'Reilly welcomed disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich to The Factor last night to discuss his recent federal indictment for a bevy of corruption charges and, after a few pleasantries, it took one question to send Blagojevich running behind the curtain of his court ordered silence. (more...)

Saturday Night Live star Andy Samberg took a profanity-filled turn as White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel last night in a segment referred to as "An Even Tempered Apology." It was, predictably, anything but, as Samberg's Emanuel unleashed on a tirade of f-bombs and insults. He started with the progressive Democrats ("f*cking turncoats") who went to the Wall Street Journal with his use of the term "retard," but then he set his sights on Sarah Palin, who called for his resignation on Facebook. (more...)

Yes, this is another "Retard-gate" post. Why? Because while I agree that Palin is right to condemn Rahm Emanuel's use of the term "retarded," and I agree that Sarah Palin's failure to call out Rush Limbaugh is hypocritical, I still think everybody is dropping the ball on this.

With very few exceptions, nobody has standing to feign outrage over this, not Palin, not Rush, and not Keith Olbermann. In fact, I think Limbaugh almost has a leg to stand on. (more...)

In the interest of full disclosure, I am inherently biased on this issue: I don’t like Sarah Palin.

But I really can’t argue with her on this one. Calling someone a “retard” or “retarded” is not OK.

This is where my other bias comes in: I have a 21-year-old Autistic sister.

I was 4 years old when my sister was diagnosed by the Yale Child Studies Center as one of the worst cases of Autism they had ever seen. The doctor told my mother to put her in an institution, and told my father to get my mother help when she refused to do so. My sister was 2 years old at the time. (more...)

As reported earlier today, Sarah Palin is using her Facebook page to denounce Rahm Emanuel's casual and pejorative use of "retarded" on the president's detractors. Yesterday Rush Limbaugh got in the act, flaunting the "political correct" movement by repeatedly using the more offensive term "retard." This was reported last night by Keith Olbermann, who asked why Palin hasn't yet come down on Limbaugh? Let's hope that this story is only getting started because it could be really fun. (more...)

video It's official, Sarah Palin has managed to start another media fire storm with her Facebook page posting on the matter (death panels the politically correct version?) and it doesn't look like it's going to simmer down soon. Also, she may want us to turn in France (more on that below). I'm not sure Palin has the clout to get Rahm Emanuel fired from his job, but she's certainly managed to get him hopping like a puppet on a string these last few days. Yesterday, the vice president for communications at the Special Olympics, Kirsten Seckler, told Ben Smith that Rahm's apology to Special Olympics head Tim Shriver was not accepted: "Tim didn't accept his apology...Tim can't do that. He can't accept an apology on behalf of all people with disabilities." Turns out Shriver accepted his on his own behalf, after which Emanuel spent part of his afternoon "sincerely" apologizing. (more...)

Is there a more media savvy politician out there than Sarah Palin? I'm not convinced. Earlier this week Palin called for chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's firing on her Facebook after it became public that he'd referred to some liberal groups as "“f***ing retarded” back in November. Emanuel (obviously) still holds his job, but an apology he privately made to Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver last week quickly became public in light of Palin's post. (more...)

Who: Jeffrey Toobin, Calvin Trillin, Janeane Garofalo and Jonathan Alter, moderated by Andy Borowitz What: The Andy Borowitz Report: Obama’s First Year Where: 92nd St. Y When: January 27, 2010 Thumbs: Up Host/moderator Andy Borowitz set the tone for the evening with ten minutes of stand-up comedy at the top of the event. It sent the message that this wasn’t going to be the same old discussion evaluating the president’s first year in office. It was a night with more laughs than sharp critique. And that’s just what the crowd was looking for on the night of the president’s State of the Union address. (more...)

President Obama and the media is getting The New Yorker treatment this week. Obama is about to celebrate his first year as President. And boy has it been a year. That intensity that has surrounded his first year, while partly the result of events that followed Obama to the Oval Office, is also the result of media coverage that only increased after his inauguration. (more...)

video Joe Scarborough and the Morning Joe team on MSNBC tossed to another new program at 9amET this morning, The Daily Rundown anchored by Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie. NBC News' White House correspondents anchored a very D.C., political junkie-centric show - with an exclusive interview with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as the centerpiece. (more...)

Hot on the heels of her controversial appearance on Fox & Friends, Firedoglake founder Jane Hamsher has joined forces with conservative activist Grover Norquist to demand the resignation of Rahm Emanuel.

The strange bedfellows, which the New York Times' Caucus blog calls "one of the strangest odd-couplings since James Carville and Mary Matalin married," sent a letter to Eric Holder yesterday, demanding Rahm's immediate ouster. Today, Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton was asked about it aboard Air Force One.

Hamsher and Norquist allege that Emanuel has been blocking an investigation of his role as a member of the board of Freddie Mac, hoping to ride out the statute of limitations. You can read the full letter at Firedoglake.

Coming so soon after Hamsher's Fox News appearance urging progressives to kill the current health care reform bill, this could well be the rollout of a new strategy for Hamsher. Emanuel is seen by many on the left as the scapegoat for selling out popular reform policies like the public option. Is this a shot across the administration's bow? Will we see Hamsher scribbling on Glenn Beck's chalkboard next?

If so, the White House doesn't seem to be worried about it.  From today's press gaggle aboard Air Force One: (via email)

Q    Is Rahm going to keep his job despite Jane Hamsher and Grover Norquist?

MR. BURTON:  I have the feeling that Rahm's job is very safe.

Still, the fact that this thing went from Hamsher's blog to the White House's face in less than 24 hours is an indicator that, love it or hate it, the nascent "frenemies" strategy is at least effective at getting attention.

First, as far as I can tell, there was "Bad Shiksa" (FIRST!). Next there was "Eight Days of Hannukah" by Orrin Hatch, followed by a cover of Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song by Neil Diamond. Then there was Eli Roth and Harvey Levin looking ready to take their act to the Catskills — and now, not even halfway to a lit Menorah, comes "Kosher Face," the latest take on Jews and Lady Gaga and Jews and Hanukkah and Jews and media and Jews and comedy and Jews. And they call Hanukkah a minor holiday. Ha! (more...)

Welcome to a newly-invented feature on Mediaite, "There's No Good Reason Not To Run This Screenshot, But Then Again, There's No Good Reason Not To" — featuring screenshots or photos that we find hilarious. That's it. You're welcome. Below: Jason Jones and Rahm Emanuel, courtesy of The Daily Show. (more...)

Actually, I suspect the only thing Maureen Dowd is sad about is that she didn't think to launch the 'President Obama is a sexist golf player' meme herself, the way she did with Obama protesters are racists. (more...)

video Fox News host Bill O'Reilly opened his show last night discussing what else? The ongoing feud between the White House and Fox News. And while he primarily focused on a Joe Klein penned Time column that accused FNC of "sedition" and "spewing hateful crap," O'Reilly claimed that he was ready for this "Fox controversy to fade," adding that he wants "the nation to see us as a force of good." Is this a turning port? (more...)

"If Fox News is a Republican research and communication “arm,” as remarked by Dunn, then the results for the last four years are shocking—with a deeply Democratic majority Congress, a Democratic president, and worshipful reception of all Obama administration gestures by the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization of American States, and the Arab League, in addition to the choir-singing on the BBC, Reuters, Al-Jazeera and Xinhua, not to forget the Norwegians of the Nobel Peace Prize committee." (more...)

Heckling the President during a joint session of Congress will get you a lot of cable flack, a long conversation with Rahm Emanuel (oh to be a fly on the wall for that chat), raise your Democratic opponent's election funds by about 1000%, AND turn you into an Internet meme. (more...)

Where were you a year ago today? If you are a political journalist — or media hanger-on — chances are you were living out of a suitcase at the 2008 Presidential Conventions, with the Dems nominating Barack Obama in Denver and the GOP nominating John McCain in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Remember those heady days? (more...)

Has the New York Times killed Obama staff profiles for everyone? There was an interesting aside dropped into yesterday's long New York Times profile of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that suggests the press may no longer enjoy the sort of access to this White House it has become accustomed to. According to the Times our normally zen-like President was furious when Times Magazine profile of top adviser Valerie Jarrett scratched at her reportedly testy relationship with Emanuel. (more...)

POLL Judd Apatow was going to be on the cover of Time this week (and he's still in the issue for his latest film Funny People), but health care is on the tip of everyone's tongue so the funnyman got subbed out for President Obama in a lab coat. It's entirely possible that if we picked up this issue of Time we'd learn nearly everything we need to know, or could stand to know, about the ongoing health care debate. But where's the pop? (more...)

Howard Kurtz reports in today's Washington Post that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel pressured the corporate CEO's of the parent companies of TV networks to run Obama's press conference during prime time, instead of communicating directly with the network heads themselves. Bob Iger (CEO of ABC's parent company Disney), Jeffrey Immlet (CEO of NBC's parent company GE), and Les Moonves (CEO of CBS, which includes CBS Network among other media outlets) all received calls from Emanuel in a plea to broadcast President Obama's recent health care focused press conference, despite the hit their networks might take in the ratings. (more...)