Officials Say F.B.I. Knew of Petraeus Affair in the Summer  —  WASHINGTON — High-level officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department were notified in the late summer that F.B.I. agents had uncovered what appeared to be an extramarital affair involving the director …

Kyrsten Sinema Wins Arizona House Seat, First Out Bi Member Of Congress  —  Sinema will follow Tammy Baldwin, elected to the Senate, as the second out LGBT woman in Congress.  —  Image by Ross D. Franklin / AP  —  WASHINGTON, DC — Kyrsten Sinema is the victor for a House seat in Arizona …

The GOP's media cocoon  —  A long-simmering generational battle in the conservative movement is boiling over after last week's shellacking, with younger operatives and ideologues going public with calls that Republicans break free from a political-media cocoon that has become intellectually suffocating and self defeating.

Grover Norquist: Romney A ‘Poopy Head’  —  Anti-tax crusader and head of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist told CBS on Monday that President Obama did not deserve a claim to an electoral mandate following his re-election because the candidate Republicans put forth to challenge him …

Elmo Voice Kevin Clash Denies Sex w/ Underage Boy — Takes Leave of Absence from Sesame Street  —  Takes Leave of Absence from Sesame Street  —  EXCLUSIVE  —  Kevin Clash — the man known as the voice of Elmo — has taken a leave of absence from Sesame Street in the wake of allegations …

Arizona Still Counting Ballots Nearly A Week After Election  —  Hundreds of thousands of ballots have yet to be counted in Arizona nearly a week after Election Day, a majority of which appeared to come from Maricopa County.  —  Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett's said Saturday …

What's Going on With the Fiscal Cliff?  —  Zhang Jun/Xinhua/Zuma; Anton Reznikov/Shutterstock  —  Where did this whole “fiscal cliff” metaphor come from, anyway?  —  It's the handiwork of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, the same guy who warned us about a “global savings glut” in 2005.

GOP's Red America forced to rethink what it knows about the country  —  HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — She arrived early to take apart the campaign office piece by piece, just as she felt so many other things about her life were being dismantled.  Beth Cox wore a Mitt Romney T-shirt …

Tea party activists blame losses on Republican establishment  —  Angry tea party activists say Mitt Romney was too moderate and the GOP undermined ‘true conservative’ candidates.  —  Mitt Romney advisor Ed Gillespie, speaking to reporters after the second presidential debate …

The New Math  —  A number of TPM Readers have written in this morning saying, “Josh, how can you of all people be surprised that Republicans or at least Republican pollsters had created their own alternative numbers reality (or in Megan Kelly's now immortal words, “Math you do as a Republican …

Exclusive: John McAfee Wanted for Murder (Updated)  —  Antivirus pioneer John McAfee is on the run from murder charges, Belize police say.  According to Marco Vidal, head of the national police force's Gang Suppression Unit, McAfee is a prime suspect in the murder of American expatriate Gregory Faull …

White House Grand Bargain offer to Speaker Boehner Obtained by Bob Woodward  —  Below are documents obtained by the Washington Post's Bob Woodward that show a grand bargain proposal the White House was prepared to make in order to reach agreement with the House Republicans last year.

In 59 Philadelphia voting divisions, Mitt Romney got zero votes  —  It's one thing for a Democratic presidential candidate to dominate a Democratic city like Philadelphia, but check out this head-spinning figure: In 59 voting divisions in the city, Mitt Romney received not one vote.  Zero.  Zilch.

‘We the People’ Petitions Filed in Nineteen States Seeking Permission to Secede from the Union  —  In the aftermath of last week's presidential election, residents in at least nineteen states have put up petitions on the government's “We the People” petitioning website seeking the right to secede from the rest of the country.

MSNBC, Its Ratings Rising, Gains Ground on Fox News  —  On Tuesday night, with a minute to go until the polls closed in the battleground state of Virginia, the MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews received word through their earpieces that the state was too close to call …

Cornel West: Obama A ‘Republican In Blackface,’ Black MSNBC Hosts Are ‘Selling Their Souls’  —  During an interview last week with Democracy Now, author and activist Cornel West offered harsh criticism of President Barack Obama, calling him a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface” …