The nontroversy surrounding potential GOP senate candidate Marc Cenedella continues! Yesterday the Times reported on the TheLadders.com founder's recently disappeared misogynistic blog posts—much to the joy of incumbent Kristen Gillibrand—and today, after calling Gillibrand's part in the PIPA mess "unfortunate," Cendella copped to Capital Tonight to having "full responsibility" for the offending blog posts. more ›

Oh the Internet, always catching politicians with their mouths open. In the latest example of the dangers of the interwebs, the Times today digs into a website purportedly written by potential Republican senate candidate Marc Cenedella. Maybe potential representatives of the Empire State don't want to be on the record as being in support of making March 14 a Steak and Blow Jobs holiday? more ›

Last night's GOP debate centered on foreign policy and national security, and a Politico headline sums up the mood pretty well: "Newt Shocks By Endorsing Mercy." Because "compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm" has become taboo within the Republican party with respect to illegal immigration, Newt Gingrich risked alienating primary voters by not acting like an unreasonable jingoist. "Let's be humane about enforcing the law," Gingrich said, telling the audience that he wouldn't automatically kick out immigrants who are "law abiding citizens." more ›

In our modern era of political "analysts" who are paid to scream mindless talking points written by D.C. thinktanks on slick TV sets, Glenn Greenwald is a reasoned laser beam, armed with copious citations and his experience as a constitutional and civil rights attorney. Though he's often hailed by the left, his columns are dense and unsparing of Democrats and Republicans alike. Greenwald is a graduate of NYU Law and currently splits his time between New York City and Rio De Janeiro, where he lives with his boyfriend. more ›

Politicians win elections and earn their salaries by promising their constituents things and then explaining later why those promises were broken. This is in the Constitution, or Federalist 35 or something. But what happens to voters when they've been pushed to the very brink of insanity by a corrupt, inane political system and a rotten economy? According to new polling by the ABC News/The Washington Post, we're about to find out in 2012! The data shows it will involve a lot of misery, culminating in a campaign that is "a dramatic shift from the hope-and-change enthusiasm generated by Obama's first run for the White House." more ›

GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain is currently the subject of an awful "witch hunt." Yes, he may have been accused of sexual harassment by two different women during his tenure at The National Restaurant Association in the late 90s. But Cain has said that he's never sexually harassed anyone, and never came to a "settlement" either. Sure an "agreement," may have been reached to pay one of the women $35,000—a year of her salary—but remember the late 90s, with all its "free love" and "Macarena?" Now, the woman who accused Cain of misconduct and took the severance pay wants to speak out, but is barred from doing so by the terms of her agreement. more ›

Before he began advocating for higher taxes for the poor and middle class, 2012 GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain headed up the National Restaurant Association. Sure, that group may have worked hand in hand to further the interests of the tobacco lobby, but at least Cain didn't do anything actually illegal, just morally reprehensible. But today, Politico reveals that the trade group was forced to settle two different complaints against Cain for "inappropriate behavior." Sounds like someone needs an electric fence around their groin. more ›

We've come to terms with the fact that extremist mustache enthusiast Pastor Terry Jones just will not go away, no matter how many times we say farewell to him. The Koran-burning rabble rouser, who is even despised by the KKK, has continually tried to drum up controversy through attention-grabbing stunts, all of which point to deeply rooted insecurities and an intense emptiness burning through his soul, perpetually pushing him to try to get people to notice him. And his latest ploy? Running for president of the United States of Pleasepayattentiontome. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] Student loans will account for more than $1 trillion worth of debt this year, amazingly set to surpass credit card debt. But there is a presidential candidate who is brave enough to free you from all this debt by never allowing you to get federal assistance to go to school in the first place: Dr. Ron Paul. "Just think of all this willingness to want to help every student get a college education," Paul said on NBC's Meet the Press. more ›

Ron Paul, fierce defender of liberty (there are exceptions!) is having a tough time distinguishing himself from the rest of the GOP field before tonight's debate in Las Vegas. So yesterday, Paul released his "bold, ambitious, Plan To Restore America" [pdf] that would eliminate $1 trillion in government spending his first year in office. Man, weren't things great before the Department of Education, the Department of Energy in the late 70s? more ›

Thanks to a pair of straw poll wins and an ingenious "9-9-9 Plan" that is akin to punching the poor and middle class in their faces nine times every nine seconds for the next nine decades, Herman Cain is now giving Mitt a run for his money in the GOP presidential field. This means his positions are getting more scrutiny, including his ideas about foreign policy. Daniel Drenzer over at Foreign Policy takes a look at Cain's website and finds "a total of five paragraphs on 'national security.' That's it." Yes, but historians will soon clamor for these brave, five paragraphs to appear under the bulletproof glass with the Declaration of Independence. more ›

Things are looking up for the Stormin' Mormon: according to various reports, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will endorse Mitt Romney's presidential bid at 3 p.m. Billionaire GOP donors have less than one hour to convince Christie to run unless they throw down a few million to stop Greenwich Mean Time so they can have that custom-made helicopter painted "Jersey Buff." more ›

Ten out of ten GOP billionaires agree: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie should run for president. But with just weeks to go before the filing deadlines, and so many "no" answers to mitigate, the governor who is already in the pocket of Big Helicopter has mobilized a group of trusted advisers who are "getting their arms around what's going to be required," a source who obviously hasn't read any of the recent coverage about Christie's weight tells the Times. more ›

After nearly a week of muted coverage, it seems that the violent arrest of 80 protestors this weekend has finally forced major news organizations to spill ink for the ongoing occupation of Wall Street. NY1's coverage reveals that Queens councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. is no fan of what's going on in Lower Manhattan. "You certainly cannot take over a New York City street…We have emergency vehicles to get through, people actually have jobs to get to, unlike these protestors, apparently," Vallone said, without a trace of irony. more ›

Thursday's Republican debate was ugly. Even the The Weekly Standard's official reaction was "yikes." So with only a month left until the filing deadline, the GOP establishment is breaking out their diamond-encrusted kneepads to beg New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to run, and the man who said just weeks ago, "I'm not running," is allegedly considering it. Newsmax reports, "the effort to draft Christie culminated in a hush-hush powwow in the past week with Christie and several notable Republican billionaires." Ahh, democracy. more ›

Just in time for Oscar season comes what appears to be a trailer for a terrifying post-apocalyptic film called President Zero. more ›

Since state lawmakers have been dragging their feet, the Justice Department is asking a federal judge to make New York State move up its primary schedule. more ›

Wednesday's Hair Summit with Donald Trump behind him, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry is back in New York City today to meet with 100 Hispanic business leaders in Inwood, including the head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers Fernando Mateo. "It's something that I kept pretty quiet, because I just wanted it to happen," Mateo tells 1010 WINS, "I don't know how 1010 WINS got a hold of the information, but you did, and I'm not going to deny it." Was it the bejazzled "Rick Perry" tube top? Mateo must be STOKED that they both support racial profiling. Maybe they'll get mani/pedis? more ›

As poll after poll shows his support eroding among independents and his base, perhaps President Obama has finally started losing some sleep. Tomorrow, Obama will propose a new tax rate for millionaires so that they will pay at least the same percentage as the 15 or so people still in the middle class. Dubbed the "Buffett Rule," after the billionaire grandpa you never had who has repeatedly said that the rich aren't taxed enough, Obama is seeking to force Republicans to choose between defending the wealthy and helping everybody else. Can you guess which side the Republicans will choose? Hint: it rhymes with "itch people." more ›

Whenever we try to think about the problems the country faces our head starts to hurt and we crave chili fries. This is why corn-dog scarfing cyborg Michele Bachmann is sure to win the presidency in 2012: she offers simple explanations to complicated problems. Just a few days ago, Bachmann told us that when she's president, she'll lower the price of gas to $2 gallon. How? Shut up, that's how! So we were relieved when we heard Bachmann's explanation at a campaign appearance in Florida this weekend for why the Northeast has been hit with a Hurricane and an earthquake in less than seven days. HINT: He's omniscient and bearded and was named-dropped a few times at last night's VMAs. more ›

Following his earth-shattering tweet on Thursday stating that he believes in the principle of evolution and trusts the scientific community on global warming, GOP presidential candidate and Mormon motorcycle enthusiast Jon Huntsman continued to embrace reality this morning on ABC. When asked by Jake Tapper about his heretical beliefs, Huntsman said, "The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party—the anti-science party, we have a huge problem. We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012." Somewhere, someone's Truck Nutz just exploded. more ›

With its namesake on vacation, the O'Reilly Factor has some big, shouty shoes to fill. Who better than Laura Ingraham? And for maximum ratings, Bill's bookers found a nice, corrupt, Congressional barrelfish for yesterday's show. Note to Charlie Rangel: FOX is not the same as a subpoena, you don't actually have to appear on it. more ›

Has someone talked Chris Christie down from the ledge at 30 Rock? Jonathan Alter, a political reporter for Bloomberg, just tweeted: "BREAKING: My sources say NJ Gov. Chris Christie is conducting focus groups in preparation for a possible run for president in 2012." Now everyone's all-a-Twitterin' about how Christie WONT be committing suicide. more ›

Sure he may have charmed a few of us by forcefully opposing the Iraq war and the bogus premise behind it, but is there any other reason to pay even the slightest bit of attention to Paul's presidential campaign? Paul finished a mere 152 votes behind Iowa straw poll winner Michele Bachmann, but no one seems to be giving him the press he deserves. Paul's campaign manager tells Politico, "We think people are missing a very big story here." Probably not! Here are three (of many) reasons why Ron Paul will never, ever be elected president. more ›

Slick Willie has some thoughts on Governor Goodhair. At a gathering of the International Association of Fire Fighters this morning in Manhattan, William Jefferson Clinton told the audience, "I got tickled by watching Governor Perry announce for governor, for president. He's a good looking rascal." Uh-oh, Rick. Better rescind that fall internship application at the Clinton Foundation unless you want to be "eating pizza" behind closed doors! more ›

Today, Iowa is (kind of) important. At the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Republican presidential hopefuls are jockeying for a momentum boost in the Ames Straw Poll, which is an early test of organizational mettle going into the Iowa caucuses in the winter. It's an opportunity for candidates to get heckled, eat fried food, and laugh at Ron Paul. This year, the top three candidates are likely to be Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, and Tim Pawlenty, but yesterday, only one candidate displayed the guts to swallow the competition. more ›

We weren't joking when we repeated the fact that Michele Bachmann is a futuristic automaton bent on enslaving mankind in the Lipton mines. But Newsweek seems to have taken a different tact by calling her "The Queen of Rage," with a delightfully demonic photo of her using her ocular gamma rays to give Obama a weird rash from thousands of miles away. Naturally, people are upset by the magazine's cover that is still significantly less offensive than that Princess Di Photoshop job they pulled in June. more ›

As expected, Majority Leader Harry Reid failed to keep his debt-ceiling bill alive in the Senate earlier today, but now the Times reports that Reid has approved an agreement signaled earlier today by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that would cut the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion and raise the debt-ceiling limit through 2013, a provision that prevents this entire battle from being re-fought during the election season. If the Democrats approve, we should see a vote scheduled for the Senate this evening. more ›