Keith Olbermann suspended after donating to Democrats  —  MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely without pay after POLITICO reported that he made three campaign contributions to Democratic candidates.  —  MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement Friday …

The Empire Strikes Back  —  The GOP picks up six Senate seats.  Let the recriminations begin!  —  Incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet has been called the winner of Colorado's Senate race, which puts the Republican gain at six seats, assuming Sen. Patty Murray of Washington holds on to her lead over Republican Dino Rossi.

Rasmussen Polls Were Biased and Inaccurate; Quinnipiac, SurveyUSA Performed Strongly  —  Every election cycle has its winners and losers: not just the among the candidates, but also the pollsters.  —  On Tuesday, polls conducted by the firm Rasmussen Reports — which released more than 100 surveys …

Pelosi is running for Minority Leader amid calls for her to step down  —  Washington (CNN) - Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she will run for minority leader, even as some moderate and conservative Democrats have said she should step aside.  Pelosi made the announcement on Twitter …

U.S. Added Jobs Last Month for First Time Since May  —  The United States economy added 151,000 jobs in October, a welcome change after four months of job losses but still not enough to make a dent in unemployment.  —  Private companies have been slowly growing their payrolls throughout 2010 …

Clinton rules out a presidential run through 2016  —  (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ruled out running for president in 2012 or 2016 on Friday, saying the United States should be ready for a woman president but it would not be her.  —  In interviews in New Zealand …

Liberal Civil War Breaks Out on MSNBC; Progressive Glenn Greenwald vs. ‘Socialist’ Lawrence O'Donnell  —  This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

Sarah Palin Complains About Invasion Of Her Privacy On First Episode Of Her Reality Show (VIDEO)  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … WASHINGTON — The first episode of Sarah Palin's new show, “Sarah Palin's Alaska,” has been placed online and it starts with what is now a familiar lament …

The Focus Hocus-Pocus  —  Democrats, declared Evan Bayh in an Op-Ed article on Wednesday in The Times, “overreached by focusing on health care rather than job creation during a severe recession.”  Many others have been saying the same thing: the notion that the Obama administration erred …

A return to the norm  —  For all the turmoil, the spectacle, the churning - for all the old bulls slain and fuzzy-cheeked freshmen born - the great Republican wave of 2010 is simply a return to the norm.  The tide had gone out; the tide came back.  A center-right country restores …

Obama: “Leadership Isn't Just Legislation”  —  Tells Steve Kroft About His Administration's Failure In His First 1-on1 Interview Since The Midterm Elections  —  (CBS) President Obama tells “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft that one of the reasons the electorate has become disenchanted …

EPA official who pushed CO2 regulation resigns  —  In the wake of historic midterm losses, people wondered whether Barack Obama would be willing or even able to execute a shift to the center and work with Republicans in the House to find areas of common ground on policy …

Republicans try to keep it simple  —  1. Incoming House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) seem to have quickly adopted a strategy for their swelled congressional ranks: Keep it simple.  —  Both Boehner, in an interview with Fox News Channel …

Americans Vote for Maturity  —  Obama gets a rebuke, but so do Republicans who seem unqualified.  —  'The people have spoken, the bastards.  " That would be how Democrats in the White House and on Capitol Hill are feeling.  The last two years of their leadership have been rebuffed.

Bruning eyes U.S. Senate bid  —  LINCOLN — To no one's surprise, Attorney General Jon Bruning tossed his hat into the ring for the 2012 U.S. Senate race.  —  Bruning's announcement Friday came 19 hours after Gov. Dave Heineman, the state's leading Republican, announced he would forgo …

Midwest at Dusk  —  If Balzac were alive today, he would plant himself in that region of America that starts in central New York and Pennsylvania and then stretches out through Ohio and Indiana before spreading out to include Wisconsin and Arkansas.  He'd plant himself in the working-class families in this area.

Murkowski acts like victor; questions linger  —  WRITE-INS: Valid votes are yet to be determined, counted.  —  Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is acting as though she already has pulled off an improbable victory after her write-in candidacy, enthusiastically thanking supporters and telling them they've made history.

Can The GOP Really Wait Until Next Year To Shut Down The Government?  —  Those who think the Republicans in the House and Senate have several months to get organized are seriously misreading the political tea leaves.  —  Even though the smaller Senate GOP minority and House Republican majority …

How QE works  —  Gawker's John Cook asks me a question about how the Fed's quantitative easing is supposed to work: … John has a few of the details wrong, but at heart he's absolutely right.  The way that QE works is that the Fed will publish a schedule of how many Treasury bonds it intends to buy and when.