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?

As part of our one-part series Project: In Vino, Mediaite set out to capture media elites, gathered to fête Hardball host Chris Matthews‘ Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, in their alcohol-lubricated natural habitat, and maybe to drink some of it ourselves. With the aid of a hidden camera, I ventured to MSNBC’s book party Tuesday night to tear the lid off of this den of open bars and Wagyu beef hors d’oeuvres.

An incredulous Joe Scarborough railed on Herman Cain this morning for the GOP frontrunner’s apparent ignorance of China’s national capability. Scarborough declared that Cain’s alarming foreign policy gaffe was evidence that he was “woefully ill-prepared to be commander-in-chief,” adding that had Sarah Palin, she would have been vilified.

The biggest problem with yesterday’s revelation that Texas Gov. Rick Perry has reopened the President’s birth certificate as a campaign issue was the fact that there was no audio or video of Perry’s interview with Parade Magazine. Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough remedied that situation, somewhat, this morning, when he drafted Willie Geist and Mark Halperin into a dramatic reenactment of the beleaguered former frontrunner’s absurd interview, in which he expresses doubt about the President’s birthplace.

On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough led off the broadcast with predictable outrage over Teamster president James Hoffa’s remarks at a Labor Day event, in which he urged the crowd to “take these sonofabitches out,” referring to congressional Tea Partiers. He called on the President to denounce the remarks, yet seemed unaware that Hoffa had made an almost identical statement on Morning Joe less than two weeks ago. Will he be denouncing his own program by day’s end?

Just a few months ago, reports surfaced that Today Show host Matt Lauer had had enough early morning TV work, and would be departing the show when his current contract came to an end. While NBC denied the report, rumors have persisted that not only is Lauer serious about leaving, but that NBC executives are reasonably (and quite seriously) considering possible replacements. Mediaite has learned that the top choice of certain key Comcast and NBC execs is American Idol host Ryan Seacrest.

Rush Limbaugh was fed up hearing about how now President Obama is going to shift his attention towards jobs and the economy. Last time Rush checked, he’s heard about such a “laser-like focus” multiple times, and he took out his aggression on MSNBC’s Chuck Todd and Willie Geist for reporting Obama’s announcement like it was new news they heard for the first time.

The most outrageous statement in the cable news cycle today happened little after dawn, and by the end of the day, Mark Halperin had found no support for his statement on Morning Joe that President Obama was a “dick”– no support, that is, except for that of Jon Stewart, who was quick to call his statement “one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen,” and go on to praise fellow panelist Willie Geist for his classic “disapproving glare.”

Texas governor Rick Perry got a warm welcome at this weekend’s Republican Leadership Conference, with calls to run in 2012 escalating and a well-lauded speech. This seemed to baffle both Morning Joe hosts today, as Joe Scarborough tried to understand how “doing a George W. Bush imitation” was appealing to some while Mika Brzezinski merely added that she “felt like an alien” watching people applaud him.

The Morning Joe crew weighed in on Sarah Palin‘s Paul Revere story with laughter and pleas for the footage to stop. After seeing Palin’s initial comment that Revere “warned the British,” Joe Scarborough said “it’s just painful – wait was the defense as painful as the answer?”

On Morning Joe, the panel tried their best to limit the amount of time they spent talking about the Twitter picture controversy involving Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner. While Willie Geist searched for the funniest newspaper headline discussing the story, Donny Deutsch didn’t see what the big deal was and wanted America to stop focusing on issues like this.

Former Minnesota Governor and GOP Presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty appeared on Morning Joe this morning to clarify recent comments that me made saying that, if he were president, he would sign Paul Ryan‘s hotly debated budget plan into law. Instead of backing away from that comment, Pawlenty doubled down and turned the scrutiny back onto President Obama, who, in Pawlenty’s esteem, is “ducking the issue” at a time when the country needs real leadership.

Rep. Aaron Schock and Men’s Health have started up a campaign to make us all feel terrible about ourselves and our bodies. Oh, wait. I misread that. They’re actually trying to get Americans “to lose weight and get healthier this summer” as part of the Fit for Life Summer Challenge. Of course, their campaign involves putting pictures of a shirtless Schock, the “Fittest Congressman,” on their cover so side effects may involve us all looking in the mirror and sobbing. Anyway, Morning Joe brought Schock on this morning to discuss the initiative and somehow refrained from force-feeding him burgers so as to bring down the handsomeness curve for the rest of us.

The thrill of victory, and the agony of watching your Copa del Rey trophy dropped into the street and run over by a bus. You know that’s got to hurt. That’s what happened to Spain’s Real Madrid, which won the Cup after 18 years and took to the streets to show off their precious silverware. As the team bus rolled through a street packed with cheering fans last night, one of the team’s players lost his grip on the thirty pound trophy, which fell directly in front of the bus and was crushed underneath.

About five years ago if you asked any regular Today Show watcher who would take over as co-host if Matt Lauer ever left, the answer would have been an easy one: David Gregory. The natural and smooth (and tall!) Gregory had been the fill in for Lauer just about every time Lauer took any time off. He even boogied live at the 30 Rock plaza to show off his “lighter side.” But these days an 8-11AM Today Show watcher who doesn’t follow politics closely (Gregory appears to be on pretty regularly in the first half hour talking politics) might very well say David who?

Although they weren’t the first, or only, ones to fall for it, MSNBC deserves some kind of award for its coverage of a hoax study that suggested that men who stare at breasts have healthier hearts than men who don’t. Way Too Early host Willie Geist debunked the story on Tuesday, only to have dayside anchor Contessa Brewer report the udderly ridiculous story in a somewhat serious mien the following day. I guess she didn’t get the…mammo? (h/t The Blaze)

MSNBC’s Morning Joe took on the disturbing story of the brutal attack on CBS correspondent Lara Logan, with Willie Geist describing Logan as “tough as hell.”

Mika Brzezinski, who was visibly upset describing the few details that are known about the story, credited Logan for the “very tough decision of going public” with the story of the attack and said she was praying for her.

On Tuesday night’s The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart heralded the availability of the iPhone to Verizon Wireless customers, breaking the exclusive stranglehold on the devices by much-maligned AT&T. In a bit that comically equated the news to the fall of Baghdad and the end of World War II, correspondent John Oliver chronicled just the latest cruel blow to the once-proud monopoly.

NBC’s Hoda Kotb and MSNBC’s Willie Geist both had books that came out last week, so obviously that means it’s war.

We have the results from the first week sales – and while both did well, one was the clear winner.

If you hadn’t gotten enough election coverage on November 2, just two weeks from today, Morning Joe will be “Live, from New York” in the studio that regularly houses Saturday Night Live.

Joe Scarborough and the Morning Joe team made the announcement about the live, studio audience version of the show this morning.

Who do you think are the most recent American “freaks”?

According to his new book, American Freak Show, Willie Geist found a lot of them: Tiger Woods, Sarah Palin, Levi Johnston, Blago, Lindsay Lohan and many more.

After a couple month hiatus, Mediaite Office Hours is back today! We’ll be coming to you from Livestream.com at 3pmET – with FNC’s Greta Van Susteren, MSNBC’s Willie Geist and Time magazine’s James Poniewozik. There’s certainly a lot to talk about.

Today marked the one-year anniversary of Way Too Early – the half-hour pre-Morning Joe MSNBC show hosted by Willie Geist.

At the time we called it a “faster, looser” version of the three-hour program hosted by Joe Scarborough – and with high profile shout-outs and some self-deprecation, Geist continued that theme.

Morning Joe had some fun this morning with the heated argument yesterday on Fox News between Megyn Kelly and Kirsten Powers during Willie Geist‘s “News You Can’t Use” segment.

The hosts joked about the “fight” – but their expressions of surprise about on-air disagreement is ironic given MSNBC’s history.

Joe Scarborough would like to clear something up. Yesterday he did NOT say that he “thought that John Boehner did not work hard enough, or that he went out and partied.” Later clarifying that since Capitol Hill is very small, people know what people do, and “John Boehner is known as a guy that likes to golf, likes to have a good time and is not known as a hard worker.” Aha! Somewhere I am sure that the office of John Boehner doesn’t love the clarification.