Photo-palooza, Big Money Mitch, a Vitter flashback, media bits, videos, and more below the fold and in the comments.
The Lineup
- MTP: National Journal's Ron Brownstein; WaPo's E.J. Dionne; PBS's Gwen Ifill; NBC's Chuck Todd; National Review's Byron York; a look at 60 years of MTP
- FTN: John Edwards (D-NC); Politico's Jeanne Cummings
- This Week: Fred Thompson (R-TN); roundtable of NYT's David Brooks, Donna Brazile, Jake Tapper and George Will; Kayce Freed Jennings on the new biography, "Peter Jennings: A Reporter's Life."
- FNS: Mike Huckabee (R-AR); atty Billy Martin (represents Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), Michael Vick and other bold-faced names)
- Late Edition: Japan PM Yasuo Fukuda; John Edwards (D-NC); ex Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto
Stay safe this holiday season everyone! Yes, the Christmas and Hanukkah decorations started going up in stores the day after Halloween, but it doesn't feel like the holiday season until Thanksgiving rolls around. So, try to eat healthy. Clip your coupons for Black Friday (or avoid the craziness altogether). Hug your families and friends. Maybe watch some football, or watch ...
the AFSCME Ad Parody That'll Kinda Make You Want To Join The Union
More TV Alerts (all subject to change)
- Tim Russert Show 11/17-18: Ron Brownstein (author, "The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America"); Michael Gerson (author, "Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail if They Don't)")
- Political Capital w/ Al Hunt (Bloomberg, repeats throughout weekends): Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD); analysis on the pres. race
- Chris Matthews Show 11/17-18: Dan Rather, Katty Kay, Howard Fineman, Michele Norris discuss "With Women Voters in the Majority, is it Smart Politics for Republicans to Demonize Hillary Clinton? Will Rudy Giuliani Benefit from his Negative Polling Among African-Americans?"
- Waging War on the VA on CNN 11/17 & 11/18 at 8pm & 11pm. Special on gaps in veterans' disability benefits.
- SNL: Brian Williams rerun (with Barack Obama cameo) 11/17
- Newsmakers (C-SPAN, 10am, Sunday): Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY)
- 60 Minutes (CBS, Sun): Steve Kroft & WaPo's John Solomon on flawed science used to convict defendants; Omar Khadr (Guantanamo Bay prisoner) awaits trial; calories in restaurant food
- Q&A (C-SPAN, 8pm, Sun): LATimes' Bob Drogin (author, "Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War")
- Today Show: author Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 11/19; Faith Hill performs for the troops 11/19;
- Charlie Gibson interviews George W. Bush and Laura Bush 11/20 (World News & Nightline) & 11/21 (GMA). Portions of the interview will air on GMA, World News, Nightline, and on digital platforms. Topics include war in Iraq, turmoil in Pakistan, the state of the economy and rising gas prices.
Sunday Talk Ratings for Last Week's Shows
MTP on top again. Last week's guests here.
Daily Show writers explain the Writers' Strike
Related: Variety's slanted coverage against the WGA
Iraq War Veteran Surprises Son in School
More
Encourage your sports teams to go green and become more environmentally friendly.
In Mississippi, Poor Lag In Hurricane Aid
Republican Focus Group from 11/1/07. This is the 2nd in a series of 10 focus groups this election cycle that the Annenberg Public Policy Center is conducting with pollster Peter Hart. I've loved watching these things since Annenberg did a series of 3 groups during the 04 general elections. I think it's really important to get beyond the poll numbers and just try to see what the average voter is thinking. We're high and uber-high info voters here, and it's interesting to see where non-high info voters (regardless of political affiliation) are. All the people in this focus group are self-IDed Republicans who voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004. These are your 29 percent-ers, and those who don't approve of Bush, disapprove because they don't think Bush is conservative enough (on immigration). Overall, these are people who give Bush the benefit of the doubt. These are not persuadable Republicans. So you're forewarned. Don't let anyone get your blood pressure up, lol.
Iraq: Bush's views on Iraq have changed in a decade... Two lives blurred together by a photo from Iraq... The Veteran Suicide Epidemic
Scandals: Ex-Publisher Says News Corp. Official Wanted Her to Lie to Protect Giuliani (for more see Rudy Giuliani's ties to Fox News) ... WaPo sums up Alaskan corruption scandals (which reminds me: Retire Ted)... FL State Rep. Bob Allen (R) gets his sentence ... Ric Keller pulls a Gingrich by cheating on wife and divorcing her while she a disease ...
Media Mix: Neglect of Hispanics is the media's dirty little secret ... 3 Journalists Expelled by Pakistan in Crackdown... Marcus Stern, the guy who broke the Duke Cunningham story, is leaving Copley News, as is Jerry Kammer who also covered the Cunningham scandal for Copley News (both co-authored a book on the Cunningham saga)... The Politico could use better fact-checkers ... the interesting story of MinnPost and how it got started and what it does ... Ad time for Don Imus's new show is selling at a good clip, and he'll return with a 21-second delay... Major kudos for David Letterman who is paying the Late Show staff through the end of the year, out of his production company's pocket (the fate of other late night staffs)... 'Stars and Stripes' Editors Ask Publisher To Resign Over Financial Disclosure Dispute ... Jay Rosen talks about his latest venture, Beatblogging.org ... CNN invests $ 10 mil in International News (hope we see some of that on CNN and its online platforms)... MTP celebrates 60 years on the air ...
CNN Taking Hits: On the ‘Diamonds or pearls’ question ... On not completely disclosing Carville's role, reframing audience questions, and other issues from the debate ... Faulty editing of wrestling docu ...
Ratings, Circ & Stats: NBC Nightly News and ABC World News have been battling it out, with NBC winning for 11/5-11/9 ... Number of "green" biz stories in '07 has doubled '06's total ... 30 Most Popular Newspaper Sites for October ... 1,800 people blog at HuffPo ... Nightline benefits from writers' strike while the Late Show with David Letterman is steady in the ratings ... CNN Las Vegas Dem debate sets ratings record ... "Ends of the Earth" and going green week pays off for Today Show ... ABCNews.com getting more and more visitors ...
Remainders
If you care, the January issue of Hustler magazine has an interview with Wendy Ellis (a.k.a. Wendy Cortez), a Louisiana hooker, with whom David Vitter has allegedly had a, uh, working relationship. Roll Call says that the Wendy Ellis talks about Vitter's "between-the-sheets preferences and physical attributes."
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) is turning 90 on Nov. 20. Trivia:
Actually, his real name at birth in Wilkesboro, N.C., was Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr., but was changed to Robert Carlisle Byrd when a sister-in-law of his dying mother and her husband adopted the senator, then less than a year old.
His natural mother died Nov. 10, 1918, a victim of a national influenza epidemic, Huber said.
"When Sen. Byrd met one of his brothers — I think this was in the 1970s — he told him that his birthday was Nov. 20, not Jan. 15," Huber said.
Since the Byrds in West Virginia had no children, they adopted the future senator but somehow confusion developed as to his actual birth date, the staff spokesperson said, and wasn’t cleared up until the brother came to see him.
JLO
Staffers passing by Minnesota Rep. James Oberstar's (D) office might have been intrigued to hear about a certain "JLo" doing some serious legislative work. [...]
Oberstar, whose full name is James Louis Oberstar, is often referred to as "JLO" in e-mails, memos, and conversations (pronounced "jay-low", just like Lopez's nickname) by aides. However of-the-moment Oberstar's moniker might be, Communications Director John Schadl wanted to set the record straight that the Democratic Congressman is no slavish fad-follower. He says Oberstar, not JLo, was the trendsetter when it came to using his initials, which he's done since he took office 17 terms ago. "It was a practice that started long before Jennifer Lopez wrestled her first Anaconda, started Waiting for Tonight and before her first dance with the stars," quipped Schadl. "Jim hopes the use of his initials has helped Ms. Lopez with her popularity in Northeast Minnesota; they are good initials and have served him well over the years."
A-Rod still a douchebag and still easy to make fun of.
More in the comments...