Donald Trump is a reality TV personality who was the frontrunner in national Republican polls last February. That was back when his “people in Hawaii” “couldn’t believe” the stuff they were finding about the President’s birth certificate, creating a national idiom (“Where did you hear that silly rumor, Donald Trump’s people in Hawaii?”). Then Seth Meyers killed Trump’s presidential hopes, but the ghost still haunts us today, and refuses to go away. Tomorrow, in Las Vegas, Trump has promised a “major announcement,” on pertaining to the Republican race.

It was, at the end, just too awesome of a thing to last. On Saturday, The Hill’s Emily Goodin reported that actor Gary Busey had decided to endorse Newt Gingrich for President, noting that he never met the GOP frontrunner, “but I know what he stands for.”

It’s been a very weird political Saturday, that much is true. With Herman Cain taking the media by storm today with his announcement that he will suspend his presidential campaign, many reporters are still trying to figure out what just happened. On Fox News today, Gregg Jarrett was doing just that, asking reporter Shira Toeplitz of Roll Call whether she believed the Cain campaign was “truly an attempt to become President,” and whether providing such a festive atmosphere to his supporters today was borderline “cruel.”

Earlier today, we brought you the hard-to-believe story that Texas Gov. Rick Perry sent a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, challenging her to a debate on Monday. Pelosi’s response quickly underscored the problem with Perry’s challenge when she tweeted her response: “Re: Gov. Perry–Monday I’ll be in Portland. Later visiting labs in CA. That’s 2. I can’t remember the 3rd thing.”

I literally had to triple-check this to make sure it wasn’t some spoof site set up to look like The Hill, but it is the real deal. The Hill‘s GOP12 blog is reporting that Texas Gov. Rick Perry has challenged House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to…a debate. Yes, that Rick Perry.

It gets better, though. The site has obtained a letter from Gov. Perry, to Leader Pelosi, in which he challenges her to said debate on Monday in Washington, or if that doesn’t work…someplace in Iowa.

In a whole new level of dedication to craft, The Hill‘s Judy Kurtz went into the belly of the beast to investigate the effects of a proposed law that would replace the dollar bill entirely with coins. Kurtz went to Archibald’s Gentleman’s Club, “DC’s premiere gentleman’s club since 1969,” to get the straight skinny on how the proposed law would affect women whose primary source of income is all about the Washingtons. Will patrons still be able to “make it rain” without putting somebody’s eye out?

The conflict between President Obama and Speaker John Boehner over the Speaker’s unprecedented rejection of the President’s request to address a joint session of Congress on Sept. 7 has been resolved. The White House released a statement which maintained that the Speaker had been “consulted” about the date in advance of the President’s request, but that the President has agreed to Boehner’s preferred, post-debate date of September 8.

The White House surprised a lot of people today when it announced that the President had asked to address a joint session of congress to discuss a plan to lower unemployment and improve a stagnant economy. Perhaps more surprising than the joint session request was that it conflicted with a previously scheduled GOP presidential debate set to air on (and hosted by) NBC News. Well it is now being reported that that Speaker John Boehner has told President Obama to delay his joint session speech one day.

President Obama is holding a press conference this morning which is almost entirely focused on the current negotiations with House Republicans over raising the debt ceiling and the larger issue of deficit spending. The Hill’s Sam Youngman asked the president about comments made by Senator Mitch McConnell that he views these negotiations through the prism of the politics of 2012. Obama ostensibly took the high road by pointing out he has to have thick skin, before also admitting that he doesn’t watch a lot of what is said about him on cable. Heresy!

Former RNC Chair Michael Steele is negotiating a deal to become a contributor for MSNBC, according to The Hill. Steele had hinted to a future in cable news since his defeat in the national party elections earlier this year, and had been making appearances on the network, most notably with Rachel Maddow and most loudly with Ed Schultz.

The Hill is reporting that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that she recently called former President George W. Bush on Tuesday to congratulate him on the recent capture and killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

On Wednesday night’s Countdown, host Keith Olbermann made a somewhat cryptic reference to the “Professional Left” flap, saying that he knew “from conversations at the time” that the kerfuffle was caused by “a combination of not setting ground rules with some reporters, and a lot of misunderstandings and frustrations.” He didn’t go into detail, possibly because conversations were off the record, so I reached out to the reporter who conducted the interview, The Hill‘s Sam Youngman.

At today’s briefing Press secretary Robert Gibbs adeptly fielded questions about his “professional left” remarks yesterday. He essentially stood by his remarks, and rattled off a list of accomplishments, and some in the pipeline, that the Pro/Am Left should be pleased with. As Gibbs echoed my sentiment about liberals turning out in November, he accomplished something rare, indeed: He had seized control of the news cycle for the left. Now that he has their attention, will it pay off?

As the controversy over Dave Weigel’s resignation from the Washington Post unfolds, the people at the center of the Weigel storm are Betsy Rothstein and Matt Dornic, two media bloggers for Mediabistro’s FishbowlDC who launched the beginning of Weigel’s end.

Self-described “newspaper junkie” President Barack Obama weighed in on the shambolic state of the newspaper industry yesterday, and said that he’d be “happy to look at” legislation that let newspapers get tax breaks if they restructured as nonprofits.

For six years running, The Hill has published a list of the 50 Most Beautiful people in DC. But now, there’s a second 50-hottest list on the scene. We spoke with Kelechi Kalu, 22, one of the upstart lists founders to find out how Washington could possibly stomach another ranking of the city’s hottest young things. And why does everyone in D.C. care so much anyway?