Hillary Clinton says she cares about women's issues, but when it comes to supporting actual women, she's just as useless as a Victoria's Secret push=up bra. She doesn't want to do a North Carolina debate, allegedly because of Passover, but really because she doesn't want to detract attention from the Pennsylvania primaries. But what about li'l Katie Couric, who is set to host the debate? CBS is aggressively pursuing another debate so Couric could prove her gravitas with real life presidential candidates. Too bad no one likes when women do anything first, or otherwise. [NYP]

After 20 or so primary debates, you might have thought that li'l Katie Couric, anchor of the CBS Evening News, would get a chance to moderate one, but you'd be wrong. Practically every other telegenic person in broadcasting has but Katie. There are a bunch of justifications, like CBS News is cheap, CBS News writers' labor dispute, and scheduling conflicts. But these are just excuses. The real reason is that if Katie Couric ever hosted a DNC debate, there would be two vags on stage too many. (Campbell Brown doesn't count as a girl, since she's a real DC journalist, as evidenced by her requisite interest-conflicty marriage to a political operative.) [NYO]

Hillary Clinton, who generally comes off way as more prepared and well-spoken than Barack Obama in their televised debates, has, naturally, received quite a bit of flack for her occasional attempts to crack jokes. These jokes—"change you can Xerox" and "no one asks me if I want a pillow"—are mostly harmless, but her delivery is terrible. Despite this, her family and friends insist she is actually a funny person. And they're right. In the clip above, she is very funny. The only problem is that she's also sarcastic, in the real sense of the word, and not the Michelle Obama sense of the word. That is maybe the worst possible way to differentiate yourself from Barack Obama, who inspires sarcastic people with his earnestness. We, with help from Jon Stewart and Ellen DeGeneres, shall explain why.

Richard Rapaport is VERY concerned about the rise of "snide advertising." It's eating a hole in our national soul! The ennui, the decline of sophistication, the "nanny-nanny boo-boo that passes for wit these days." Some might say that advertising never had a golden age of wit and sophistication, but Rapaport argues in a long Ad Age piece that the current trend is one that historians will look back on with disdain. Is our entire society becoming less civil, right down to the way we sell things to each other? It's an important issue. Below, Gawker chief Nick Denton's analysis of this controversial topic:

The final two presidential debates before Super Tuesday will be co-hosted at the end of January by CNN, the Los Angeles Times and Politico. Apparently, nobody relayed news of this partnership to LA Times media critic Tim Rutten, who, over the weekend, called CNN "corrupt" and "incompetent" for botching last week's "debacle masquerading as a presidential debate." Awkward! Also, we think it would make some damn fine television if Politico reporter Ben Smith was allowed to ask Rudy Giuliani a question on live TV, such as "How much do you hate me for writing about your mistress slush fund and exposing the blueprints for your presidential campaign?" [LAT]

As the recollections of late hotelier Leona Helmsley start pouring in, the New York Post does its best to illustrate the impenetrable nature of her character in the form of an unintentional point-counterpoint between columnists Andrea Peyser and Cindy Adams. The issue in question? How Leona felt about the gays.

In the matter of Blogger vs. Jessica Biel's Hotness, Corporate Casual declares: "But I guess it's like they always say, one man's 'sexiest woman alive,' is another man's 'lead actress in the Frances McDormand bio-pic.'" [Corporate Casual]

In 1997, preeminent American auteur Woody Allen gave the world a collective case of the nauseous willies by marrying Soon-Yi Previn, Mia Farrow's adopted daughter, 35 years his junior. Even a decade later, his decision continues to be the source of much heated debate—particularly among a pair of Wisconsin inmates, who came to fisticuffs in a mealtime exchange about the Scoop director's controversial personal life:

An actual radio listener says that this morning on WNYC, Wonkette founder and current Washington editor for Time.com Ana Marie Cox hinted that she might be one of the hosts of MySpace's Presidential Town Halls, those attempts to "engage" young people in the political process. (Good luck with that!) Anyway, they'll be visiting college campuses this fall. The kids can even submit questions via MySpace instant messenger! And watch the MySpace webcast! Fancy! Cox, we hear, will most likely be hosting along with the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, who writes the politics blog The Fix for WP's website. He's not quite as pretty as Ana, and probably doesn't hate Eric Alterman as much, but we suppose he'll do. Calls to MySpace were not returned.