With the Iowa caucus 24 hours away and the tension mounting on the three campaigns still vying for a clear lead, potential frontrunner Rick Santorum has started lashing out at the media– both conservative and liberal. On the radio today with host Mike Gallagher, Santorum accused the “elite media” of having a “general attitude” that they know better than voters so pervasive that it even appeared in Fox News, and accused Bill O’Reilly of “refus[ing] to put me on his program.”

As his ascent grows increasingly questionable in light of scrutiny of his foreign policy stances and several-decade-old newsletters, it appears the questions about the latter have become inescapable for Rep. Ron Paul, even from garden variety political enthusiasts. Rep. Paul appeared today on Iowa’s WHO-AM with host Jan Mickelson and had to confront repeated questions on how it was possible for him not to know the content of his newsletter.

At this point, Rush Limbaugh‘s offensive against Rep. Ron Paul has become something of a regular feature on his program. So it’s not entirely surprising that Limbaugh’s anti-Paulism has seeped into his commercials, too– or at least in parody. This week, Limbaugh debuted a “pro” Rep. Paul ad that featured the “candidate” arguing “the greatest danger is not from Iran, it’s from us overreacting.” Surely this will go over well with Paul fans.

And now for today’s most pleasant conversation about the most unpleasant topic imaginable. Yesterday morning, Don Imus welcomed Bob Beckel to the radio show and, while the conversation started off on politics, quickly strayed to their shared experiences with alcohol and drug abuse. With the holidays coming, Beckel noted that it was a particularly difficult time for people trying to sober up, while for veterans like he and Imus, the only challenge was dealing with how “obnoxious” drunk people are.

Apparently Limbaugh slept through the entire 2007 Republican primary campaign. Reacting to a self-identified tea party caller that suggested Rep. Ron Paul, Rep. Michele Bachmann, and former Senator Rick Santorum were the only true conservatives left in the race, Limbaugh reacted in shock at the idea that Rep. Paul would be associated with the Tea [...]

The Donald Trump debate brawl on the right between the real estate/reality TV titan and apparently everyone respected on the American right continued full steam ahead today, as Mitt Romney declined the debate invitation and Ed Rollins joined in on the Trump-bashing. Not one to be left behind, Trump commented on the new attacks on the radio today with Laura Ingraham, blaming Karl Rove for single-handedly guaranteeing a victory for President Obama and calling Jon Huntsman‘s quip that he wouldn’t kiss “any part of his anatomy” “sort of disgusting.”

At a meeting of the Republican Governor’s Association this week, pollster and strategist Frank Luntz made a bold admission: that he was “frightened to death” of Occupy Wall Street, and suggested their influence had made the term “capitalism” toxic and it should be replaced with “economic freedom.” One person not content to follow those instructions? Rush Limbaugh, who chastised Luntz for “dumb[ing] down” the conservative message for a movement that was “about disbanded.”

It is campaign season, and no matter how serious any other non-political story may be in the meantime, there is no such thing as a news item unable to be tied to the presidential election. So when the Penn State child rape scandal broke, it was inevitable someone would drag it into the Republican race– this time, it was Bill Press, who argued there was “no difference” between Herman Cain‘s sexual harassment allegations and coach Jerry Sandusky allegedly being caught sodomizing a ten-year-old boy in a locker room.

Rush Limbaugh may have had a little too much fun on his program yesterday making fun of Sharon Bialek, the first woman to publicly accuse Herman Cain of sexual harassment, and the fact that, to him, her name sounded like the phrase “buy a lick.” This morning he responded to the inevitable criticism by calling CNN reporter Carol Costello his “stalker” for criticizing him and escalating his animosity towards Bialek– and her 13-year-old son, who he argued President Obama would be proud of for being a “tattle tale” by supporting his mother.

Herman Cain‘s ongoing sexual harassment scandal may have won him a number of detractors, but at least one prominent voice on talk radio (besides Rush Limbaugh) is buying his side of the story: Howard Stern. Stern took some time on his program to praise Cain’s rendition of “Imagine There’s No Pizza” and, when asked by co-host Robin Quivers what he thought of the accusations, said decidedly, “I think it’s a smear job.”

As Justin Bieber, the pop confection who made “Blagojevich hair” look cool, inches ever so close to adulthood, he will yearn to participate in that sort of depraved activity that leaves most adults who indulge it morally bankrupt: politics. And as he discovers this political identity within him, he will begin to say polarizing things like “I don’t really believe in abortion” and “there are some senators who should really be in jail.” This time, Bieber is in hot water for expressing the latter sentiment– against, of all people, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.

Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s attacks on Texas Governor Rick Perry for mandating HPV vaccines in Texas may have elicited cheers from the crowd at last time’s CNN/Tea Party debate, but it may have lost her Rush Limbaugh‘s confidence. Telling his audience on the radio today that he did think Perry “goofed up” on the executive order, he found Rep. Bachmann’s attacks to have “jumped the shark.”

Conservative commentator Laura Ingraham went a little Hugo Chavez on President Obama in her criticism of his jobs speech today, saying “The devil is not just in the White House, it’s in the details.”

Texas governor Rick Perry has been a presidential candidate for about three days, but it’s been more than enough time for Chris Matthews to make clear he isn’t buying what Perry is selling. Tonight on the program, Matthews discussed his chances with radio personality Jim Hightower and reporter Wayne Slater, telling them that he believed he “smells birtherism about this guy” and agreed with a comparison made to Donald Trump.

Glenn Beck took to the airwaves today with a fairly large set of grievances: the President’s response to the S&P downgrade; the violence of the Arab Spring and, by proxy, the London riots; S&P’s abysmal credit rating system itself. Discussing the riots, all these topics seem to have blended together for him– mocking the President’s support of the Arab spring by asking him to support the UK riots and calling the downgrade symptomatic of the “economic Archduke Ferdinand moment” that was the earthquake in Japan.

Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist has becoming something of a figure of intrigue as of late, wielding what appears to be significant influence over Congressional Republicans and yesterday raising the eyebrows of former Senator Alan Simpson, who called for an investigation into his funding. On today’s program, Glenn Beck laughed off the idea that Norquist was the “new evil villain,” and that he could possibly be up to no good. “Who is funding Grover Norquist?” he asked his co-hosts, before answering himself: “Why Sesame Street, of course.”

Somewhere in the formidable daily pile of snail mail to the White House today, President Obama received an apology from a Republican Congressman– and no, it had nothing to do with the debt ceiling debate. Colorado Rep. Doug Lamborn excused himself in writing today for comments on a Colorado AM radio show where he said he was afraid of associating with the President because he was a “tar baby.” He claims it’s not what it sounds like.

Don Lemon‘s heated interview with Sen. Rand Paul on Sunday over the weekend’s budget debate earned him as many accolades as complaints from viewers, and Lemon made no apologies for keeping the Senator on topic without delving into talking points. This morning, Glenn Beck had little good to say about the interview, as he noted that, while he had asked similar questions of Republicans, the attitude Lemon took to Sen. Paul was “condescending” and counterproductive.

The Communist Party USA is the sort of fringe third party that rarely gets any attention in the national spotlight, but a recent speech by a party leader asserting that the group seeks to “reclaim” the Fourth of July as their holiday landed them squarely in Glenn Beck‘s crosshairs. On his radio program today, Beck played a clip of the speech and warned that, just as the Communists were trying “reclaim” Independence Day,” they were after American history.

As a nation sat agape at Casey Anthony being found not guilty of killing her young daughter Caylee, many in the media who had no public doubt of her guilt railed against the jury. But as Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher explained to host BC Thomas on WBGN’s The Sports Guys, the legal burden of proof for murder is far higher than the standards required of responsible journalism.

Texas Governor Rick Perry seems to have a bit of a Charlie Crist problem, at least according to this week’s Politico article drumming up old rumors that the potential 2012 Republican candidate may be gay. The article is already on the lips of several political commentators, notable liberal talk radio host Stephanie Miller, who wondered whether Rush Limbaugh‘s support would dwindle if rumors were true. The comment landed her in hot water with conservatives, naturally, who turned the spotlight on her own sexuality and her choice to bring up Perry’s.

In the early days of the Greek tragedy now known as “Weinergate,” many wondered whether the scandalous photo tweeted from Rep. Anthony Weiner‘s account were actually of the Congressman’s genital region. While, by his own admission, the possibility that it was anyone else was slain a week ago, some still have their doubts: mainly radio host Mark Levin, who told Don Imus today that he wasn’t entirely sure the photo wasn’t of President Barack Obama.

Laura Ingraham made her first television appearance after Ed Schultz‘s long, somewhat gut-wrenching apology, and, as she did on her radio show earlier, she graciously accepted the apology– even going as far as inviting detractors to “tease me in a humorous fashion,” but not to be nasty. But while she kept the spotlight straight on Schultz, Bill O’Reilly saw his suspension as indicative that the new sheriff in town at MSNBC– Comcast– was cleaning house.

Americans are an enterprising people, one that have managed to find fashion inspiration in the most peculiar of places. On Rush Limbaugh‘s radio show this week, one such American called in to ask Limbaugh what to do about the fact that her skin tone didn’t take very well to the color orange, and to offer some free advice to First Lady Michelle Obama: yellow makes her look “like a tub of mustard.”

Rush Limbaugh doesn’t seem to support Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, but he’s getting dangerously close to endorsing his UN-sanctioned actions against civilians. Expressing concerns about the possible successors to Gaddafi, Limbaugh noted that much of the opposition to Gaddafi in America is a “leftist position” that “any rebel is an oppressed minority,” even if they are “the worst scum on earth.”