World's fittest man Paul Ryan is in a bit of ideological trouble today after it was revealed that the congressman lied about requesting a stimulus package. Just yesterday Ryan told ABC's Cincinatti affiliate:

Mitt Romney has reportedly been offered a Saturday Night Live hosting gig by executive producer Lorne Michaels himself. The last time a candidate hosted the show was in 1996 when GOP candidate Steve Forbes hosted. (He never made it to the general election.)

Hyperactive pepperoni stick Herman Cain just emerged from his big-ass tour bus, theme song playing and teensy wife by his side, to take to a rental podium and announce that he's suspending his presidential campaign. You all distracted him with your accusations about affairs and leg-touching moments too much!

Demented occult practitioner Michele Bachmann dropped a zinger into tonight's Bloomberg/Washington Post Republican presidential debate, telling Herman Cain that if he were to turn his "9-9-9" plan upside down, "I think the Devil's in the details."

In what some called a sort of a Jew d'Etat, Republican Bob Turner defeated Democrat David Weprin yesterday in a special election to fill the empty congressional seat in New York's Anthony Weiner-stained 9th district. Turner's win represented the end of an 88-year hold on the seat by Democrats in a district where they outnumber Republicans three-to-one. And while there are a few theories floating around as to what caused the tidal shift, Jon Stewart had a firm grip on one in particular on tonight's Daily Show.

On tonight's Real Time, Bill Maher declared that Republicans believe in "being against everything [Obama] is for" and "must nominate for 2012 a man who is the exact opposite of Obama." He even created one for them! Meet Karab Amabo.

Some guy got all excited after learning that Republican Martha Roby won the 2nd Congressional race in Montgomery, Alabama. He probably feels awesome about this picture, too. [Image via AP]

Minnesota Majority, one of the groups behind the anti-voter fraud initiative called "Election Integrity Watch," told supporters in an e-mail last night to go ahead and wear their "Please I.D. Me" buttons and Tea Party apparel to the polls today.

If you watch TV, you've probably seen references to this year's campaign season and the fact that it's the "nastiest ever." Is it really, though? Nope—and these mock ads (using real quotations) from the 1800 election prove it.

Tonight, Jon Stewart noted President Obama's shift from bipartisan love machine to Republican-killing campaign shark, and—namely—the media's reaction to it. The verdict? MSNBC should emulate Fox News' skew-the-news-to-fit-our-narrative mantra, and Rick Sanchez is an effing idiot. Video inside.

Stephen started his midterm election coverage by providing a menagerie's worth of animals to use as bartering chips with doctors. This is all to skewer a Nevada Senate challenger's idea, but who wouldn't want to carry around a little bunny?

To commemorate the event, in addition to We the People, Edward Norton's HBO documentary that brought a tear to Obama's eye (aww, remember when everybody loved him?), campaign manager David Plouffe has a new memoir out called The Audacity to Win.

"Publicist Jordan Brown delivered the straight line that Fran Drescher is serious about becoming the next junior senator from New York." [AP, Previously]

Fred Thomson was a hot Republican presidential candidate for about 10 minutes at the start of the primary cycle, thanks to the former senator's Law & Order gig and the fact that he didn't seem as scuzzy as Rudolph Giuliani or Mitt Romney (not hard). He hasn't had much to do since then, except campaign inconsequentially for John McCain, try to point out Al Gore to a team of hired Serbian snipers at a presidential debate (pictured) and think about having a loser TV show like Mike Huckabee. But now it sounds like he's turning into a sad, desperate man, renting out his condo for the inauguration, instead of admiring Michelle Obama's dress like a true American.

FiveThirtyEight.com: "'We think when it's all said and done Martin will lose by around 10 points." Kaus: "The actual margin is looking more like 14 points."

Televised child-groper Saxby Chambliss soundly defeated his rival for a Georgia senate seat, with a 15-point margin of victory over Democrat Jim Martin with 96 percent of precincts reporting. This was expected, but still: This is the guy whose advertisement questioning the patriotism of his triple-amputee war-hero opponent was called "reprehensible" by eventual supporter John McCain. Though the Democrats were never going to win 60 senate seats, and if they had they weren't going to be truly filibuster-proof, Chambliss' victory will make the senate all the more fun and interesting, giving the media something to cover other than the president's screaming matches with his secretary of state. Also, with Al Franken still in a Minnesota recount, this election is STILL not over. Jesus.

Vogue editor "to accept a 'cultural post of some sort for the Obama White House,' according to at least one person in the magazine industry." [Scoop, second item]

Greta Van Susteren and Matt Lauer were first out of the gate with lengthy Sarah Palin interviews after the election. The chats were slammed as softball jobs by some critics, and you can now add Katie Couric to that group, at least in one regard: She wishes someone had asked the former Republican vice presidential nominee why she didn't answer Couric's simple and ultimately devastating question about what newspapers and magazines Palin reads. Hopefully Lauer, who hosted Today with Couric for nine years, doesn't take the critique personally, particularly since Couric may very well end up back at NBC. Click the video icon to watch Couric explain her thoughts on David Letterman's Late Show.

First African-American President Elect Barack Obama's confident smile and kind eyes are an inspiration to us all, so why not commemorate his historic achievement on a "priceless work of art," in the form of a collectible plate? Not just any plate; a fine porcelain Historic Victory Plate featuring our dear leader surrounded by American flags and fireworks, inscribed in 22k gold trim. Only two per customer please; demand is high. This awesome infomercial includes a happy white family gathered about their Obama plate sighing, "I never thought this day would come." It's really very American. Click to watch. And another thing that should not exist:

It's not that Shep Smith has suddenly had a liberal change of heart. The Fox News Channel anchor was shouting about his ideological independence back in February. It's that Smith seems to have become more vigorous and visible lately about setting himself apart from conservative pundits like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. His Tuesday smackdown of a comedian who said the media was "in the tank" for Barack Obama followed recent defenses of the Democratic president-elect to Ralph Nader and Joe The Plumber, plus cutesy little digs at Hannity and O'Reilly. It's all after the jump.