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Shortly after noon today, MSNBC's Contessa Brewer followed her colleague Chuck Todd in using the anniversary of the 14th Amendment becoming law to cite the liberal fantasy of a clause in the amendment empowering President Obama to end-run Congress on raising the debt ceiling.

Like Todd she got her history and the text of the relevant clause wrong.

This occurred during a satellite interview with Rep. Elliot Engel (D-N.Y.) on the debt ceiling debate (video follows page break; MP3 audio available here):

First it was her migraines, then it was the cost of her hair and makeup, and now it's correlating her anti-gay views to bullying and suicides in a school district she represents. Rep. Michele Bachmann has in many ways become the new Sarah Palin as a prominent female target the media love to hate. Even when she responds to her critics, they don't seem to go away.

Bachmann suffers from migraines, like 30 million other Americans, but has proved through her career the migraines don't hinder her ability to serve. Nevertheless, she immediately released a statement from her doctor explaining her migraines are under control. In comparison, both former President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama had health issues that could have turned into major problems during their presidencies, but neither released their medical records. Clinton had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and clogged coronary arteries, while Obama was a longtime smoker with a family history of cancer.

In a critical "Keeping Them Honest" segment Wednesday night, CNN's Anderson Cooper selectively reported findings from his network's own poll to bolster his argument that Republicans are out-of-touch with the wishes of the American people in the debt ceiling debate.

This came even after the Democrat Senate Majority Leader, supported by the president, produced a plan including no tax increases in an effort to garner Republican support. Yet Cooper still peddled a CNN poll showing public support for a plan including increased tax revenues, and framed Republicans as dishonest for claiming Americans want no more taxes.

Would Senator Barack Obama disagree with the actions and statements of President Barack Obama? That question gets a closer look in the video ‘The Great Debate’.

Among the issues touched on is President Obama’s current decision to have the Attorney General’s office on the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA). 

Good Morning America's Nick Watt on Thursday launched into a mocking attack on CNN host Piers Morgan and his role in the British hacking scandal. With barely restrained glee, Watt gloated, "The tide of scandal is now lapping into the well-pressed pant cuffs of the man who took Larry King's chair and the America's Got Talent self-proclaimed loud mouth."

Watt played an audio clip from a 2009 interview in which a BBC reporter casually asked Morgan about his 11 years as editor of British tabloids and  having to tap phones and take secret photos.

After initially saying that "not a lot of that went on," Morgan added, "A lot of it was done by third parties rather than the staff themselves. That's not to defend it because, obviously,  you were running the results of their, of their work."

[See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Bradlee Dean, a Christian ministry founder, conservative radio host, and rock drummer has sued Rachel Maddow for claiming he advocated execution of gays on his radio show in May 2010.

Dean is seeking "in excess" of $50 million in damages and stated in his lawsuit that reporting by Maddow and the Minnesota Independent's Andy Birkey has harmed his reputation, hurt his livelihood, and led to death threats against him. Dean is also suing MSNBC, the cable network's parent company NBC, Birkey and the Minnesota Independent.

Maddow first criticized Dean on her program Aug. 9, 2010 after describing how the ministry created by Dean, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, received money from Minnesota GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. Maddow quoted Dean saying this on his radio show May 15, 2010 and played an edited excerpt (video clip after page break) --

Wednesday’s “Lessons From The Malaise” is David Leonhardt’s last economics column before becoming the New York Times's Washington bureau chief. It pretty much encapsulates his liberal worldview, while assuming his premises are universally shared.

One of the tricky things about the subject is that almost nothing is certain in the way that, say, two plus two equals four. Economics -- which is at root a study of human behavior -- tends to be messier. Because it’s messier, it can be tempting to think that all uncertainty is equal and that we don’t really know anything.

Leonhardt again writes as if it is all serious thinkers admit tax increases are necessary.