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In a recent interview with GQ, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) declined to say how old he thought the earth was and got a lot wrong in the process.

Five wingnut Governors have said that they will not set up state run insurance exchanges, but will opt for the Feds to run their state's exchanges. So, can this be a kind of backdoor for single payer? I'm honestly asking.

Act 1, Scene 1: "This Christmas will be different" Shoppers excitedly bustle on the sidewalk in front of Nakatomi Towers in Midtown Manhattan. Enter John McClane. [Song - "This Christmas is going to be different - with a bang not a whimper" John McClane & Chorus. The song includes backstory on the troubled relationship between McCalne and his wife, Holly Gennaro-McClane, and how John McClane wants to use the goodwill of the season to romance his estranged wife back into the sack.] The crowds slowly part and McClane is left under a single follow spot. McClane reveals his motivations. He is withdrawn and depressed because he thinks he has lost the ability to come up with new catchphases. [Song: “I Got Nothing (For Christmas).”] Only by learning the true meaning of Christmas can he regain his catchphrase mojo. To do that he must defeat the greed and commercialism of Christmas, McClane exits into the building.

I was hoping voting would be would be an issue this year, so I'm glad Senator Coons proposed this:

His bill is a multipronged effort to improve access to the polls. It asks states to create flexible registration opportunities, emphasize early voting periods, promote no-excuse absentee voting, provide foreign language assistance, improve accessibility for disabled voters, train election officials, audit polls with long wait times and create contingency plans for voting during natural and other disasters.

We all see what is happening, right? Hostess management claims that greedy striking workers are responsible for plant closings, and the lap dog press reports it even though the Wall Street owners of Hostess already planned to close plants even if the workers accepted the cuts and stayed at work. Baker's Union President Frank Hurt says the workers knew the score all along:

Our members know that the plans all along of the Wall Street investors currently in control of this company did not include the operation of Hostess Brands any longer than it takes to sell the company in whole—or in part—in a way that will maximize the profits of these vulture capitalists regardless of the impact on the workforce.

Huzzah for job creators!!

A TPM reader nailed the reason why the GOP has fallen in love with this pitiful excuse for a scandal. Unlike birth certificate claims, or college transcript nuttiness that can be easily debunked and laughed off, this scandal comes complete with shoals of red herrings and over a half-dozen movable goalposts. It is perfect for wingnut Senators who are addicted to being interviewed on TV.

It’s kind of a scandal that means whatever its proponents want it to mean: failure to secure the consulate, attempts to cover up nature of attack, attempts to downplay its significance, failure to call it terror. Related but distinct charges that get refreshed each day by people who know there’s no there there. Frankly it makes me nervous. The made-up scandals are hardest to resolve and most likely to expand in scope.

From one of our commenters:

Meanwhile in the real world....Israel is assembling troops for a possible ground attack, the fiscal cliff crisis still looms and that pesky Benghazi investigation is heating up. Has DL gone brain dead since the election?

Let's talk about this one by one.

Economist agree. This isn't the time for cuts. This is a time for investments in public infrastructure and stimulus. The only people who think the current jihad on jobs is a good idea are residents of the DC bubble like Senator Tom Carper. To help try and penetrate the bubble a little bit, the letter below, signed by 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, Americans for Democratic Action, the Newark branch of the NAACP, the Delaware branch of the National Organization for Women, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and the Delaware State AFL-CIO was delivered to Senator Carper at his offices yesterday. The photo provides a tidy summary of what the SEIU and other organizations calling for budgetary sanity are up against.

Make sure you tune in. Good ole Papa Joe is the comedic relief in the Obama Administration, as his portrayal in the Onion satire can attest. Some of the jokes are not goodnatured, especially among sore loser and unfunny conservatives.

No matter how harsh the joke, Delawareans seem to take pride in their most famous (and most powerful) son. Delaware may be small, but it swells with a tight-knit pride. And those were the feelings running through [Parks & Recreation star Aubrey] Plaza — Delaware’s fastest rising Hollywood star — as she found herself in Washington, D.C., with the man himself. “One of the coolest things about him and everyone in Delaware is this weird Delaware pride we all have,” she says. “I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s something in the chemicals leaking into the ground, but we’re all really psyched about being from Delaware and he’s the face of that.”

It's true, when maybe not about the chemicals, but about the Delaware pride bit.

I know some of my old Howard Dean peeps are out there lurking. How about a meetup to reminisce about the good old days of "people powered Howard" and how we scared the pants off Karl Rove? Contact me through email if there is any interest in getting the band back together. Speaking of Howard Dean and Karl Rove, there is this now...