Of all the reasons why Republicans scored big gains in the elections earlier this month, I’ll bet that you hadn’t considered laughingstock RNC chairman Michael Steele to be one of them.

Sarah Palin takes a swing at progressive patriotism and ends up hitting herself, the conservative movement, and objective reality.

Cutting Social Security benefits, either directly or by raising the retirement age, is deeply unpopular. No Democrat should even entertain the notion, especially given that the trust fund currently solvent for the next two decades, and the public is clearly behind the more progressive alternative to dealing with any future shortfall.

Yesterday, Maxine Waters chaired the House Financial Services Committee hearing on foreclosure fraud, and very effectively called out both the regulators who have stood mute in the midst of this crisis, and the big bank servicers who have been actively harmful to their customers. A day later, her hearing with the House Ethics Committee was postponed indefinitely, due to the “discovery” of new documents in the case.

MERS is a screw-up. Congress should let them run the entire property registration system. How do these fit together? Money is such a lubricant.

Democracy is now safe. Neither Keith Olbermann nor Morning Joe, who are real persons/citizens, can contribute insignificant, puny amounts to political campaigns without asking their daddy’s permission.

The latest leak out of the Catfood Commission is that the participants just can’t seem to agree on anything, with just 11 days to go until their report is due.

I don’t mean to be vulgar, but as the TSA ratchets up the security theater to new and literally obscene heights, I can’t help thinking about the butt. I’m specifically referring to the ability to smuggle weapons past these security measures using the anal cavity and/or the GI tract.

Finally, some good news coming out of November’s election: Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) will replace outgoing Sen. Blanche Lincoln on the Senate Agriculture committee as chair.

So it appears that the House and Senate will hold votes on extending the tax cuts up to the first $250,000 of income, and letting the rest expire. But they don’t appear to be particularly hopeful that such a plan will actually pass.