Joe Scarborough suspended from MSNBC for campaign donations  —  MSNBC said Friday that it is suspending “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough for two days after he acknowledged giving eight previously unknown $500 contributions to friends and family members running for state and local offices during …

The Democrats have picked the wrong strategy on the Bush tax cuts  —  The Democrats are converging around a strategy on the Bush tax cuts that, if it works, would potentially eliminate the tax cuts for the rich.  The votes in the Senate are such that legislators on both sides say the strategy won't work …

Don't touch my junk  —  Ah, the airport, where modern folk heroes are made.  The airport, where that inspired flight attendant did what everyone who's ever been in the spam-in-a-can crush of a flying aluminum tube - where we collectively pretend that a clutch of peanuts is a meal and a seat cushion is a …

Fmr Sen. Alan Simpson Predicts Govt. Shutdown  —  ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports:  —  Former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, the top Republican on the President's bipartisan debt commission, painted a vivid picture of what Washington will look like when the national debt limit must …

U.S. deploying heavily armored battle tanks for first time in Afghan war  —  The U.S. military is sending a contingent of heavily armored battle tanks to Afghanistan for the first time in the nine-year war, defense officials said, a shift that signals a further escalation in the aggressive tactics …

Minority Report  —  As the speaker of the House of Representatives, where Democrats just lost 60-odd seats as well as their controlling majority, you led your party into the worst electoral defeat in decades.  And yet you chose to run for Democratic leader in the next Congress.  Why not just step down?

Etheridge Concedes To Ellmers  —  Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) formally conceded this afternoon after results from a completed recount were expected to show he didn't make up any significant ground in his race against Rep.-elect Renee Ellmers (R).  —  In his concession statement …

$#!% Joe Biden Says  —  Can he raise the rafters like his boss?  No. But nobody can flat-out talk like Joe Biden.  And these days, everybody's listening  —  There are only two reporters traveling coast-to-coast with the vice president on Air Force Two on a clear day in early October.

Senate Democrats vent anger with Barack Obama  —  Senate Democrats - including typically mild-mannered Bill Nelson of Florida - lit into President Barack Obama during an unusually tense air-clearing caucus session on Thursday, senators and staffers told POLITICO.

Maxine Waters Ethics Trial Put On Hold … On the day after the House Ethics Committee recommended a censure for Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), the committee announced Friday that it will not hold the trial of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Nov. 29, as scheduled.

THE WRONG QUESTION AT THE WRONG TIME.... CBS News sent around a press release yesterday afternoon about a special “In Focus: Debt and Deficit,” hosted by Katie Couric.  —  The release noted, “With this year's record-breaking deficit of $1.5 trillion — the biggest ever in U.S. history …

At NATO summit, Obama's ride is talk of the town  —  Some heads of state are zipping around Lisbon, host city of the NATO summit, in no-emission electric vehicles.  Security dictates that Obama travel in the no-efficiency ‘Beast,’ a vehicle that fascinates the local press.  —  Lisbon

Meditation Diet  —  Now out of prison, a slimmed-down Bob Ney spends his days in India with devotees of the Dalai Lama.  —  Former Rep. Bob Ney and Tenzin Sherab by the prayer wheels at Sarah College.  —  Most Americans got their last glimpse of Bob Ney in 2006 when the powerful Ohio …

Obama Forces Showdown With G.O.P. on Arms Pact  —  WASHINGTON — Just two weeks after an election that left him struggling to find his way forward, President Obama has decided to confront Senate Republicans in a make-or-break battle over arms control that could be an early test of his mettle heading into the final two years of his term.

Worm Was Perfect for Sabotaging Centrifuges  —  Experts dissecting the computer worm suspected of being aimed at Iran's nuclear program have determined that it was precisely calibrated in a way that could send nuclear centrifuges wildly out of control.  —  Their conclusion, while not definitive …

Axis of Depression  —  What do the government of China, the government of Germany and the Republican Party have in common?  They're all trying to bully the Federal Reserve into calling off its efforts to create jobs.  And the motives of all three are highly suspect.  —  It's not as if the Fed is doing anything radical.

Sarah Palin Slams Michelle Obama in Racially Charged Passage From New Book  —  What's Your Reaction:  —  In passages leaked from her forthcoming book America by Heart, Sarah Palin — the erstwhile quitter governor of Alaska, who now, by all indications, fancies herself as President of the United States …

Nancy Pelosi taps Steve Israel to run DCCC  —  Rep. Steve Israel will head up the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the 2012 election cycle, a move that will vault the 52-year-old New Yorker into his party's leadership ranks during what promises to be a political season for House Democrats.

Web Censorship Bill Sails Through Senate Committee  —  Who says Congress never gets anything done?  —  On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that would give the Attorney General the right to shut down websites with a court order if copyright infringement is deemed …

What Commissions Can Do  —  Ezra Klein believes the deficit commission failed, because … I disagree!  Commissions can't achieve consensus.  That requires the normal political process of horsetrading and deals, and sometimes there's no deal to be had.  —  I'll go back to what I said when the commission got started.

Incoming Labor Committee Chair Says Jobless Benefits Aren't A Priority: 'We Can't Fund Everything'  —  Yesterday, the House of Representatives failed to pass a (far too short) three-month extension of unemployment benefits.  If Congress does not act to extend benefits by the end of the month …