Jennifer Grey appeared on "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" on Tuesday, and said it felt "damn good" to win "Dancing with the Stars," when she aced out Bristol Palin.

But she stopped short of criticizing her or Tea Partiers' effort to flood the ballot box with votes for her,.

"This is fantastic," Grey said.

Of Palin's dancing ability, she said, "I have to say that she really came a long way...She's a lovely girl."

She also didn't seem to find anything wrong with the campaign to vote for Palin.

"People tuned in. We had 26 million people," she said.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I'll be posting a link soon to my story on FCC chairman Julius Genachowski's plan to pass net neutrality rules before the end of the year, potentially resolving one of the most contentious recent lobbying battles between telecom companies and the tech sector in Washington. The New York Times reports that Genachowski plans to unveil his proposal in detail in a speech on Wednesday.

Hollywood is in the middle on this: Studios and record labels are worried that too stringent of regulation will constrain Internet providers from fighting piracy, while some creative groups and guilds like the WGA fear that without rules in place the Internet will consolidate to the point of making it much harder for independent creators to compete.

Very roughly speaking, Genachowski's plan would stop short of reclassifying the Internet as a "telecommunications service," something that telecom and cable companies have vowed to fight, along with congressional Republicans.

Instead, he plans to propose that Internet providers be prohibited from blocking legal content, although there wireless providers would get some flexiblity as their networks develop. According to the Times, his proposal also would allow an Internet provider to charge customers for different levels of service, based on usage. So a user who watches a lot of movies online could be forced to pay more than someone who just goes to check email and Facebook.

We'll see how this all shakes out. I imagine that many public internet groups that have been pushing for more robust rules will be disappointed, but there will be considerable talk of a lack of alternatives given the incoming crop of congressional Republicans who are professing smaller government and lighter regulation.

Elton John will perform a concert at the Beverly Hills estate of Ron Burkle on Jan. 19 to raise money for the legal challenge to Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage.

The proceeds from the event will support the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the org that is pursuing the challenge to the ban on gay nuptials, with Ted Olson and David Boies leading their legal team.

On Monday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the latest phase of the case. Proponents of Prop 8 are appealing U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s August ruling that the initiative was unconstitutional.

The foundation, a nonprofit formed by a group of entertainment industry activists, has held a series of events in recent months, including an art auction in New York that raised $600,000 and a fund-raiser featuring Wall Street and GOP leaders that raised $1.3 million.

Chad Griffin, board president of the foundation, said, "We are deeply honored to have the support of Sir Elton John. The American Foundation for Equal Rights stands for the enduring principle that all Americans are created equal, and believes that ending state-sanctioned discrimination is a critical step we must take toward ending the hate crimes and suicides that continue to claim the lives of young Americans."

The foundation also is holding a contest to win a trip to see John's performance.

For the second week in a row, "The Simpsons" got in a dig at Fox News. In the opening credits on Sunday was the image of a Fox News helicopter with the slogan, "Unsuitable for Viewers Under 75." That followed last week's tease, the same helicopter and the slogan, "Fox News: Not Racist, But #1 with Racists."

While the intrafamily zings caught the attention of many in the media, and a kind of playfully irritated Bill O'Reilly, what is lost is the fact that "The Simpsons" is inserting such topicality at all.

As Dave Itzkoff points out in the New York Times, it could signal more satire aimed at recent events, something the show has not done with its long lead time.

Executive producer Al Jean tells him, “We’ve really entered this new era, where even a show like us, that’s produced so far in advance, turns into a sort of a daily show, where you do something, you can throw something in that gets immediately around the Internet. It gets a response. It’s mostly just us trying to do our humor in the new way that humor is done.”

Lady Gaga released a new online video urging repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, as doubts remain whether the votes are there to end the ban on gays in the military in the lameduck session of Congress.

The Senate needs to repeal "otherwise it is going to take years for it to happen," she says in the video.

The Pentagon is set to release its study on Tuesday on the repeal of the policy, and it is expected to show that a majority of those in the armed services would not be opposed to such an action.

CNN has posted a story summarizing the Fox News contributors who are potential contenders in 2012: Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee, with John Bolton added over the weekend.

The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz, who hosts CNN's "Reliable Sources," tells them: "For a Republican presidential candidate – even someone just thinking about running – a Fox platform is gold. Fox News is the go-to channel for most GOP primary voters, and being a host or frequent guest is a terrific platform in a friendly environment."

I expect this is just the start of an ever-more rocky relationship between the news networks, but it may be a boon to the candidates. If they don't have to spend money to get exposure, doesn't it make more sense for them to wait until the very last moment to officially enter the race?

The studio lobby has been pressing President Obama and his administration to take greater action against online pirates --- and so it is no surprise that a crackdown on dozens of sites today was greeted with praise. The timing, on Cyber Monday, is just the kind of thing that can maximize attention.

But it's unlikely to mollify critics of proposed new legislation that would give the Department of Justice greater authority to shutdown domain names trafficking in pirated content. In fact, it's given them new fuel. If the DOJ and customs enforcement were able to shut down, by seeking court order, so many sites today, what is the need for additional legislation?

The bill, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously, is unlikely to get passed this Congress, but supporters had hoped that the bipartisan support would be enough pressure for action in the next session.

The politics, however, are volatile. As much as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been casting this as a jobs issue, there's also bispartisan opposition. Patrick Ruffini, a conservative blogger, is helping to organize a coalition against the bill, according to the bill, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), is threatening to place a hold on it.

Political consultant and one-time actor Fred Karger has the distinction of having the first commercial out of the gate for 2012.

Karger is running a 90-second spot, below, on the Iowa airwaves over the next week. In the ad, he flashes images of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, Sarah Palin...you name it, to convey the message that the partisan bickering is hurting the country and that he stands a shot as an "independent Republican."

His bid is a longshot. Even though he has substantial experience in politics, he's also a gay Republican and vocal activist. While undoubtedly this class of conservatives have become more visible, just in the past year, it's far from clear that this is anything other than a liability with the majority Iowa's Republican caucusgoers. In his spot, Karger more generally refers to his work in civil rights, which has been where the arguments have been headed.

Karger also is a former actor, having appeared in bit parts in some of the classics of the 1970s, including "Airport 1975" and "Rich Man, Poor Man," as well as a proposed spinoff of "Welcome Back Kotter" called "Horshack."

I kind of wondered why we didn't have ratings info yesterday for "Sarah Palin's Alaska," now I know why: Ratings for its second episode on TLC fell by 40% from its debut.

Some 3 million viewers tuned in on Sunday, which is still a good number for TLC, but it compares to 5 million for the debut.

More disconcerting for TLC, but not necessarily for Palin, may be the audience, which skews much older than the cable network's average. The show drew 981,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic, compared to 1.8 million from its debut.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is asking antitrust officials to investigate whether Comcast has jumped the gun in announcing a restructuring of the NBC Universal management team before the combination of the two companies gets the greenlight from federal regulators.

In a letter to Chrstine A. Varney, chief of the antitrust division at the Department of Justice, Franken wrote that "by announcing the future leadership of NBC Universal well in advance of federal approval, Comcast may be seeking to indirectly exert managerial and operational control of that company."

He also said that Comcast "may purposefully or inadvertently trigger the exchange of competitively sensitive information between the companies, beyond what is customarily permissible in premerger settings." He asked that the Justice Department study whether it may be "gun-jumping" in violation of the "letter and spirit of federal antitrust law."

Franken has been critical of the proposed transaction, arguing that it will further consolidate the industry and limit the opportunities for independent content creators.

The DOJ and the FCC are in the midst of reviewing the transaction, in a process that has been expected to be completed by the end of this year. Last week, Steve Burke, the prospective CEO of NBC U, announced a series of management changes, including the appointment of Robert Greenblatt as chairman of NBC Entertainment.

Comcast issued a statement in response to Franken’s letter: "Transition and integration planning is common, proper, and expected in a transaction of this type. Post-closing management teams are regularly announced prior to antitrust approval. NBC Universal has remained in total control of all decision making to date, Comcast has had no role in NBC Universal business operations. At every step of the way, this process has been supervised by counsel to ensure faithful adherence to the rules, and that will continue."

Discovery Channel just unveiled promo clips of President Obama's Dec. 8 appearance on "MythBusters." He challenges the show's two hosts to re-test the myth of the Archimedes Solar Ray. The myth is that Greek scientist Archimedes set fire to an invading fleet using only mirrors and the sun.

Kristina Schake, partner with Chad Griffin in their Los Angeles political strategy firm, has been named communications director for First Lady Michelle Obama.

Schake, who has advised California's First Lady Maria Shriver and her annual Women's Conference, also has been a member of the board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the org that is pursuing the case the overturn Proposition 8. Griffin Schake has specialized in political and entertainment clients, including Rob Reiner and Janet and Jerry Zucker, and has worked on several voter initiative campaigns on stem cell research and early childhood education.

In a statement, Michelle Obama said that Schake "has done extensive work throughout her career on child nutrition and community health issues, and that paired with her experience as part of a military family will bring invaluable insight to our work on childhood obesity and our efforts to support military families."

In Sarah Palin's new book, "America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag," she cites "American Idol" as an example of what is wrong with America.

It's not the show itself, but the contestants.

According to a leaked copy obtained by the site Palingates, she writes that the contestants are suffer from the "cult of self esteem."

She writes, "No one they have encountered in their lives -- from their parents to their teachers to their president -- wanted them to feel bad by hearing the truth."

Critics are jumping on the comment, one of many digs at the White House, noting that Bristol Palin has received so-so scored on "Dancing with the Stars" yet has advanced into the finals. One caveat: her reference to "their president" could just as well be Bush or Clinton, given the age of the "Idol" contestants. It depends on the context.

But can you imagine any other 2012 GOP contender writing a tome and deciding to bring in "Idol"? Pop culture draws attention (you are after all reading this and I am writing it), and Palin, with her reality show, appearances on "Dancing with the Stars," interviews on "Entertainment Tonight," etc., has tapped into it in ways that few other national political figures ever have. But she's also taking another, more populist route than that of other politicos who have turned to late-night comedy or "Saturday Night Live" satire to soften their image. After all, it's satire, in the form of Tina Fey's impersonation, that helped to harden voters image of her as unqualified for the presidency.

Ron Brownstein, who wrote the landmark book about entertainment and politics, "The Power & the Glitter" and is now editorial director of the National Journal, tells ABC News that the risk is that voters may warm up to Palin but still see her as a celebrity.

Yes, but come 2012, will that make much of a difference?

MSNBC has now suspended Joe Scarborough for contributing to eight candidates running for office in Florida.

Variety's Sam Thielman reports that he'll be suspended for two days, the length of time that Keith Olbermann was kept off the air two weeks ago when it was discovered that he had contributed to candidates in advance of this year's midterms.

MSNBC's Phil Griffin probably had no choice, given that there already was enough criticism of double standards when Olbermann was suspended because it was quickly pointed out that Scarborough had contributed to candidates back in 2006. The distinction, MSNBC said, was that he cleared it with them first before writing the checks.

This debate, however, doesn't take into account Citizens United, which has essentially opened the floodgates for all types of political expenditure through independent committees and no disclosure of donors. I'll bet that this becomes more of an issue as we head into 2012, particularly as Democratic fund-raisers are grumbling about setting up such committees in the same way that conservatives did this year.

"There's been more angst over this than over the 2000 election." Media analyst Shari Anne Brill, on the suspicions that Tea Party members are unfairly running up the vote in favor of Bristol Palin on "Dancing with the Stars."

The New York Times' Dave Itzkoff goes further into detail on what inspired Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to seek a pardon for Jim Morrison, noting that the action seems to have ignited a new squirmish in the culture wars.

But what stands out in this story is a reminder of the furor at Morrison for allegedly exposing himself onstage at a 1969 Miami concert.

Itzkoff writes, "In the ensuing outrage, several other nearby Doors concerts were canceled. On March 23, the Orange Bowl became the scene of a Rally for Decency, organized by local high school students. Some 30,000 teenagers and adults gathered for performances and speeches on virtue by Jackie Gleason, Anita Bryant and the Lettermen. (President Richard M. Nixon later wrote a letter to the rally’s organizers saying they had shown “admirable initiative.”)"

"Longhaireds" were banned.

Jackie Gleason?!

He reportedly told the crowd, "I believe this kind of movement will snowball across the United States and perhaps around the world."

Update: Crist talked to Lawrence O'Donnell this evening for his reasons for considering a pardon for Morrison.

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NPR has become a target of the Tea Party and conservative Republicans, particularly after its clumsy firing of commentator Juan Williams last month.

But the news org on Thursday found sympathy from Democratic congressional lawmakers, who turned back a GOP-led effort to slash its funding. Conservative leaders, including incoming House Speaker John Boehner, called for cutting back NPR funding after Williams' firing for comments he made on Fox News.

NPR hailed the "good judgment" of Congress in rejecting the effort.

"The proposal to prohibit public radio stations from using CPB grants to purchase NPR programming is an unwarranted attempt to interject federal authority into local station program decision-making," the network said. "Furthermore, restrictions on the authority of CPB — a Congressionally chartered, independent non-profit organization — make competitive grants to NPR, or any other public broadcasting entity, is misguided."

Grabbing more attention were the comments that Fox news chief Roger Ailes made to the Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz. He blasted NPR brass as "Nazis," which was enough to trigger an apology. It was to the Anti-Defamation League, not to NPA execs, but it was an apology nonetheless.

(Ailes also chastised Jon Stewart, who he thinks is a socialist, for lapsing into "non-comedy" at his Rally to Restore Sanity).

NPR may have survived today's vote, but there's bound to be a different picture should the news org's funding come up for a vote in the next Congress. Republicans were united in their opposition, and it's doubtful that the new crop of freshman will be of the type to have much sympathy for public radio.

Politico reports that FCC chairman Julius Genachowski is working on a new net neutrality plan, an effort to jump start his proposal to establish rules of the road for the Internet.

Genachowski is working on a deal that is similar to a compromise proposal that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) tried to get off the ground before Congress went on recess in late September.

That proposal would have prohibited Internet providers from discriminating against lawful Internet traffic, something that would give an advantage to certain types of content over others. But the proposal left some leeway for wireless providers and prohibited for two years the FCC from moving to "Title II" classification as a telecommunications service. The FCC would get the authority to act on complaints on a case-by-case basis, with fines of up to $2 million for violations.

Waxman's effort was stymied when Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Although Genachowski has the votes on the FCC to move toward "Title II" reclassification, which would give the commission the power to impose rules on the Internet, it's encountered stiff opposition from telecom and cable companies.

Nevertheless, he's been under pressure from consumer and digital rights groups to take action.

Television cameras will be allowed to cover the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal hearing of Judge Vaughn Walker's decision in August to overturn Proposition 8.

The federal appellate court on Wednesday granted C-SPAN's request to televise the proceedings live, as well as that of KGO-TV. C-SPAN will serve as the pool feed for all news organizations with request coverage, the court said.

The Ninth Circuit's approval of plans to webcast the proceedings of the trial in January were nixed by the Supreme Court, after defenders of Prop 8 complained that such coverage would expose their witnesses to harassment. But the proceedings before the appellate court will feature no witnesses but the attorneys from both sides, making oral arguments and answering questions from the bench.

The Ninth Circuit has allowed televised or audio coverage of oral arguments in some 200 cases since 1991, with the approval of the panel hearing the case. Alex Kozinski, the chief judge of the Ninth Circuit, also has been a chief supporter of a pilot program to allow cameras in certain non-jury civil cases in the district courts.

Michael Moore surely took note of the comments from Wendell Potter, the former health insurance exec who has turned against the industry, that the lobbying org was so fearful of his 2007 doc "Sicko" that they launched a campaign to discredit him.

Potter tells Amy Goodman of the liberal show "Democracy NOW," "We were concerned that the movie ["Sicko"] would be as successful as "Fahrenheit 9/11" had been. And we knew that if it were, it really would change public opinion about our health care system in ways that would be harmful to the profits of health insurers. So, it was very important for this [attack] campaign to succeed. At one point during a strategy meeting, one of the people from [the insurance companies' public relations firm] APCO said that if our efforts, our initial efforts, were not successful, then we'd have to move to an element of the campaign to push Michael Moore off a cliff. And not meaning to do that literally, but to—"

Moore writes, "More than one person on Capitol Hill will admit that "Sicko" was a big help in rallying public support for the compromise bill that eventually passed earlier this year. But I agree, their smear campaign was effective and did create the dent they were hoping for -- single payer and the public option never even made it into the real discussion on the floor of Congress."

This PSA on safe-sex features "Dancing with the Stars"'s Bristol Palin and "Jersey Shore"s "The Situation."

Doesn't this fall into the category of a "very special episode" --- and signal a jumping of the shark?

When Tina Fey accepted the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center last week, she got in a dig at her satirical alter ego, Sarah Palin, inferring that her success is a "disaster."

But viewers who watched the tape of the event on PBS didn't see it. It was cut out of the final broadcast.

The executive producer of the show, Peter Kaminsky, tells the Washington Post that it was not a "political decision" to take the Palin remark out but was made in the interest of time, as the event ran 19 minutes over.

Fey's complete remarks are still available on the PBS website.

What she said was: "Politics aside, the success of Sarah Palin and women like her is good for all women — except, of course, those who will end up paying for their own rape kit and stuff. But for everybody else, it's a win-win. Unless you're a gay woman who wants to marry your partner of 20 years. Whatever. But for most women, the success of conservative women is good for all of us. Unless you believe in evolution. You know — actually, I take it back. The whole thing's a disaster."

Palin was not present, but it just goes to show that just about anything involving her these days inspires some kind of a flap.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, about to vacate his office after an unsuccessful campaign for Senate, says that he plans to recommend that late rock star Jim Morrison be pardoned for two convictions related to a 1969 Miami concert.

Crist tells the New York Times, “I’ve decided to do it, for the pure and simple reason that I just think it’s the right thing to do. In some ways it seems like a tragic conclusion to a young man’s life to have maybe this be a lasting legacy, where we’re not even sure that it actually occurred. The more that I’ve read about the case and the more I get briefed on it, the more convinced I am that maybe an injustice has been done here.”

Crist says that there was never any documentary evidence that the crime --- lewd and lascivious behavior during the concert--- took place.

Morrison was convicted of profanity and indecent exposure in 1970, but never served a six-month jail sentence. He was appealing the conviction when he died in 1971.

In a 1970 interview, Morrison claimed that it was a matter of "freedom of expression."

Jon Stewart took on John McCain's shifting threshold for repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," as well as his wife Cindy's flip-flop on the issue last week.

Invoking Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite to make his case, Keith Olbermann tonight devoted a "special comment" on "Countdown" to rebutting Ted Koppel's charge that his show reflected the "death of real news."

Olbermann called Koppel's Washington Post op-ed a "dangerously simplified understanding of modern news," and took issue with the former "Nightline" anchor's lumping of MSNBC together with Fox News. Moreover, Olbermann said that Koppel himself had engaged in just the same kind of point-of-view journalism given that "Nightline" was born out of the night-after-night coverage of the Iranian hostage crisis.

He also challenged the notion that MSNBC was a liberal answer to Fox, noting all of the changes at the network over the past decade and the fact that a conservative, Joe Scarborough, hosts a three-hour morning show, "Morning Joe." "This network came to this place organically," he said.

TLC scored record ratings with its launch of "Sarah Palin's Alaska" on Sunday.

According to my colleague Mike Schneider, the show averaged nearly 5 million viewers, making it the No. 1 program launch in the cabler's history.

We'll see how the show averages over the longterm, but it's an impressive debut nonetheless, and will help TLC promote the rest of its schedule.

Update: Brian Lowry breaks down the numbers and writes that the show has scant younger viewers. "Actually, the audience skewed pretty old, which perhaps isn't surrpising: More than 60% of the "Palin's Alaska" viewers were over 50 -- the kind of people who vote, watch broadcast news, and wear funny hats while ranting about America becoming a bastion of socialism."

The crowd of top military brass and soldiers' families that recently filled a Pentagon movie theater watched a project that may have been the opposite of a recruitment ad.

In one scene, a mother, lamenting her son's suicide after returning from two tours of duty in Iraq, concludes, "The U.S. Army trained my son as a killer. They forgot to un-train him."

The project was HBO's documentary "Wartorn: 1861-2010," debuting today, which chronicles the toll and stigma of post-traumatic stress disorder on soldiers throughout history -- and the rather feeble efforts by the military to do anything about it. It's not an antiwar film, but it certainly gets the point across that the military, from the Civil War to very recently, has struggled or simply ignored the psychological toll on soldiers returning from the hell of the battlefield. Steely legends of the past, lionized by Hollywood, come across as brutally ignorant. During World War II, Gen. George S. Patton's response to a soldier hospitalized for nervous exhaustion was to slap him and tell him to get back into the field.

What was a surprise to the filmmakers and HBO is that instead of running away from the project, the military embraced it. Douglas Wilson, the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, called it an "honest portrayal of a difficult problem."

Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, introduced the movie, calling it "powerful and tough," and even recounted meeting a homeless veteran of Iraq who "looked me in the eye and said, 'I gave my country 100% and that is all I am asking for in return.' "

In other words, with two protracted wars going on, the problems of PTSD are not going away, and better to use even criticism to show what the military is doing about it.

At the event, Gen. George Casey, the chief of staff of the U.S. Army, called post-traumatic stress "the defining military health issue of our era," and spoke of a "comprehensive soldier fitness" survey, kind of an audit to monitor signs of post-traumatic stress.

"We have started a program to get on the front end of this, to actually build resiliance into the soldiers, family members and civilians so they don't get into the dark place to begin with," he said.

But he and other speakers on a post-screening panel said it was far from enough in a culture that historically has seen psychological help as a sign of weakness.

The military has long had a sense of what "Wartorn" is about, given that executive producer James Gandolfini appears in the project visiting military leaders in Washington and Iraq. Moreover, HBO has won praise in the Pentagon for past projects like "Taking Chance." D.C. media entrepreneur Tammy Haddad helped arrange the more unusual spectacle of actually having the premiere in the corridors of the Pentagon, believed to be a first.

"If America is going to be at war, in this protracted, long-term way, then the military has to and is wise to take ownership of some of the consequences of war and the costs of war," says Ellen Goosenberg Kent, who produced along with Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill.

Mingling among the mix of government officials and execs like HBO's Richard Plepler and Sheila Nevins was a father whose son killed himself in Iraq, even after giving plenty of warning signs, only to have a military psychologist tell him to "just be a man" and go back to his unit. At the event, he got to talk to Casey face-to-face.

"When I see (Casey) do that, it tells me they are not bullshitting," said Alpert, who with Kent also directed the project. "They are saying, 'This frog has warts, but it is our frog.'

"The fact that they are showing this film at the Pentagon is something that I don't think would have happened 10 years ago, or even two years ago," he added. "This is a day that surprises me and encourages me, because it is the first time in the history of the military that they are talking about what war does to you."

I'll be taking a post-election break this week, so posting will be sporadic.

It's a good time to take a pause and say thanks for reading, and for all your support. Late last month Wilshire & Washington passed the four year mark --- and the feedback and comment has helped make this a great experience, more than I could have imagined.

All best this week.

Ted

Before Eliot Spitzer returned to the public eye via a CNN talk show, he was sidelined, ready to weigh in on the financial crisis but much more reluctant to talk about the scandal that ended his political career. One who did get him to reflect on what did him in was Alex Gibney, who already has told tales of political and financial hubris with "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" and "Casino Jack and the United States of Money." His latest project, "Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer," opens nationwide on Friday, and although there are similarities to his previous efforts, Gibney sees the Spitzer story as more of a mystery, with elements of "The Big Sleep."

"You have a mystery within a mystery within a mystery, and the deeper you dig, the harder to understand, even after you get at the facts," he says. "In 'The Big Sleep' the heart of the story is sex. That is one of the big things, but it is also about sex and power."

I spoke to Gibney last week about why sex and power keep tripping up politicians, why the timing of Spitzer's downfall at the cusp of the financial crisis may not be mere coincidence, and whether his subject can ever make a political comeback.

I had read that it was some hedge fund managers who asked that you do this project.

Some wealthy individuals who are in the financial industry in New York approached me about doing the movie, which is interesting but also somewhat concerting. I didn't want to be in a situation where they wanted me to make a certain kind of film, and I didn't want to make that kind of film. So I said, 'Put some money in an account, give me the keys and I'll do it,' and they agreed. I have complete creative freedom. I had final cut.

What type of story did you think it would be, and how did that change?

I knew what the big headline was: 'Sheriff of Wall Street resigned in prostitution scandal,' and it was deeply ironic. But I was becoming less interested in that kind of irony than in the fact that these kinds of contradictions were happening over and over again. I was also interested in the fact that the timing seemed so odd. The financial markets were melting down just as the sheriff of Wall Street goes down, and I wasn't sure there was a connection. And then the other thing that was interesting to me about it was something that didn't have anything to do with the political economy... It provoked so many discussions about marriage, sex, fidelity infidelity, but also what we expect of our public figures.

Here's our story on the latest on the Olbermann suspension --- and how he certainly is not the only news personality to give to candidates.

Rachel Maddow talked this evening about the suspension of Keith Olbermann, arguing that the response of MSNBC was different from that of Fox.

She said, "Let this incident lay to rest forever the facile, never-true-anyway, bull-pucky, lazy conflation of Fox News and what the rest of us do for a living. I know everybody likes to say, ‘Oh, that’s cable news, it’s all the same. Fox and MSNBC, mirror images of each other.’ Let this lay that to rest forever. Hosts on Fox News raise money for Republican candidates. They endorse them explicitly, they use their Fox News profile to headline fundraisers. Heck, there are multiple people being paid by Fox News now to essentially run for office as Republican candidates."

"They can do that because there’s no rule against that as Fox. They run as a political operation; we’re not.”

Update: Brian Lowry writes, "Whatever you think of MSNBC, it's hard to ignore the fact that Fox does, indeed, march to the beat of its own drummer -- one that steadfastly pursues a "narrative," as Jon Stewart has repeatedly pointed out, without really giving a damn about the ethical standards that constrain most news outfits. It might be successful, but it's extraordinarily difficult to defend unless you're blinded by partisanship."

Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely without pay for making contributions to three Democratic candidates this cycle.

MSNBC president Phil Griffin issued a terse statement in which he said, "I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay."

Politico reported on Friday that Olbermann donated $2,400 each to two Arizona representatives, Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords, as Jack Conway, a contender in Kentucky, in violation of NBC News policy.

Olbermann said in a statement, "I did not privately or publicly encourage anyone else to donate to these campaigns nor to any others in this election or any previous ones, nor have I previously donated to any political campaign at any level."

Olbermann has been critical of News Corp.'s donations to the Republican Governors Assn. this past cycle, and there has been some concern that his campaign contributions not only undermine those arguments but his attacks on undisclosed donors.

News organizations typically bar employees from making campaign contributions --- it's kind of common sense 101 --- and although Olbermann is by no means an objective reporter, he still was under the network's news policy.

His suspension is likely to set up a debate over whether cable news personalities, already unabashed in expressing political points of view or advocating for causes and even candidates, can also engage in elections via campaign contributions.

At Fox News, Sean Hannity has appeared at fund-raisers and has given to candidates and political action committees, including a contribution to Rep. Michele Bachmann's PAC in August.

But even among its commentators, Fox News has tried to reign in some activities. In April, Hannity was billed as the headliner at a Tea Party event and fund-raiser in Cincinnati, but the network ordered him not to participate. The network's VP of programming, Bill Shine, said at the time, "Fox News never agreed to allow the Cincinnati Tea Party organizers to use Sean Hannity's program to profit from broadcasting his show from the event." The action came just one week after News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch told a Washington forum,  "I don't think we should be supporting the Tea Party or any party."

News Corp. did make a much publicized $1 million contribution to the Republican Governors Assn. in the summer, and Murdoch later told Politico  that the donation was inspired by his friendship with John Kasich, a Fox News contributor and friend who was in the midst of an ultimately successful campaign for Ohio governor.

Kasich was the source of a complaint filed during the campaign by the Democratic Governors Assn. The DGA charged that Fox News made an in-kind contribution to Kasich's campaign because they ran the address of his website during an appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor" and that the guest spot was an implied endorsement of his candidacy.

Update: New wrinkles: Joe Scarborough, host of "Morning Joe," gave $4,200 to Derrik Kitts (R-Ore.), in March, 2006, even listing his occupation as "MSNBC host" in FEC records. And Pat Buchanan, a frequent contributor, made numerous contributions to candidates in recent years.

Some have pointed out that the distinction in the case of Olbermann was that his contribution to Grijalva was made around the same time that the Arizona congressman was a guest on his show. But bloggers have pointed out that Kitts was a guest on Scarborough's show a month after the contribution was made.

In remarks to Hollywood-centric fund-raiser tonight, former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel talked of his Chicago mayoral bid but did not say much at all about the Democrats' beating in the midterms.

A source who attended the event at the home of Haim Saban said that Emanuel instead talked about plans for education reform in the Windy City and of the urgent need to improve schools. He spoke of   moments of seeing kids on the el, their eyes glazed over with "no spark, no future, no hope," the source said.

Emanuel "was very direct and to the point," the source said.

He also talked of the state of the race, and the fact that formidable competitors had dropped out.

The event was co-hosted by Saban, Emanuel's brother Ari, David Geffen, Disney CEO Robert Iger and former News Corp. president Peter Chernin. Among the 50 or so attending were writer Aaron Sorkin, producer Susanne Daniels and fellow agents at Ari Emanuel's WME Entertainment.

According to the source, there was one moment of sibling teasing when Rahm Emanuel talked of being an experienced negotiator not afraid to say "kiss my ass" in tough sessions. His brother Ari responded, 'What, no f-bomb?' To which Rahm replied that he agreed not to talk about their childhood, "so don't give me a hard time."

Rahm Emanuel is raising money for his Chicago mayoral bid tonight at the home of Haim Saban, a fact that is not lost on his rivals.

Carol Mosely Braun says that it is fitting that the event, co-hosted by Emanuel's brother Ari, is in Hollywood because it is "fiction" that Emanuel helped the Obama administration.

Per the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet, Braun said in a statement, "On this day when President Obama and Illinois Democrats are still recovering from the painful political debacle that he was the architect of, Rahm Emanuel is off in Hollywood hanging out with bankers and billionaires.

"But maybe Hollywood is where he belongs because the story of how he "helped" the Obama administration when he was chief of staff is indeed fiction.

"Rahm Emanuel cut and ran after pushing policies that lead to the biggest Democratic Party political loss in 27 years.

"He left the President holding the bag. If Rahm abandoned the President of the United States, what makes anybody think he'll stick by regular Chicagoans?"

All this sounds like jealosy, of course. Faced with the same situation --- industry moguls like Bob Iger, David Geffen and Peter Cherin offering to write checks and call friends --- would she really turn down the money?

Her reference to the "biggest Democratic political loss in 27 years" presumably refers to 1984, when Walter Mondale suffered an electoral rout in the presidential race to Ronald Reagan.

Another rival for the Windy City mayor, Gery Chico, is having his own event this evening, at Chicago's Hollywood Grill.

All 95 midterm candidates who signed on to a petition supporting net neutrality lost.

I doubt that many people went to the polls with net neutrality as a litmus test, but what are the odds? Many, many were Democrats seeking open seats or to unseat Republicans, and this just wasn't the year for them.

If you want an official start for the 2012 presidential race, perhaps Nov. 14 is as good an a date as any. That's when "Sarah Palin's Alaska" debuts on TLC, and the show and its website have gone out to the media.

First impressions: The show is supposed to be an apolitical travelogue, but since when has Palin appeared or said anything that somehow doesn't trigger a furor?

"Our behavior has certainly changed this summer because of this new neighbor," she says at the show's onset, per the Huffington Post. "I think it is an intrusion, an invasion of our privacy and I don't like it." Palin later adds, "It's just none of his flippin' business."

She's referring to author Joe McGinniss, who moved in next door to her as he is working on an unauthorized book about her life.

But the show in general is crafted to suit the image she wants to project. As James Poniewozik writes in Time, "Sarah Palin's Alaska, at least the premiere episode I saw,  is not exactly setting out to turn her into Jessica Simpson—it portrays her as a hard-working, hard-playing politician/mom who has adventures against a set of Reaganesque backgrounds.

"Should she run, and should the series be seen as an asset in broadening her image, it may at least change the way candidates prepare for campaigns in the future. Why pay to make the image ads if someone else will pay you to make them?"

This type of campaigning already was apparent in 2008, as candidates took to shows like "Entertainment Tonight" and magazines like Us to tap into a pop culture segment more likely to let them project the image that they want to project. Palin is taking it a step further, avoiding the "lamestream" media altogether and providing her choice comments and nuggets of news to Fox News (where she is a paid contributor), Facebook or Mary Hart.

One other note: The scenes online in "Sarah Palin's Alaska" --- including one in which she's hiking up the side of a glacier --- do show that this series works a lot better for her than the one-time Fox News show she hosted earlier this year, when her in-studio hosting presence felt stilted.

Jon Stewart's show topped all other late-night talk shows in the 18-49 demographic in October, beating even Leno and Letterman.

That's an impressive feat, and we'll see if the audience only grows following his Rally to Restore Sanity and the Democrats' shellacking on Tuesday. Fox News' ratings spiked after Obama's inauguration, as it became a voice for disaffected Republicans and conservatives. (Stewart actually thinks that is the wrong approach for MSNBC).

On Wednesday, Chris Wallace was a guest on "The Daily Show," and when the Fox News anchor sat down, Stewart congratulated him and his network for "retaking control of the House of Representatives. You did it."

Another sign of Stewart's influence: In April, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner held an off-the-record meeting in the Comedy Central host's office to discuss the economy. Geithner was not there to guest on "The Daily Show." A spokesman for the Treasury Department tells Bloomberg News, “Jon Stewart is influential in America, so we took the opportunity for the two to meet and to discuss the economy."

As the fall campaign kicked off in September, I posed the question of whether Meg Whitman risked overexposure.

She'd been on the air for more than a year, introducing herself to voters.

With her soundly defeated, I guess we have the answer. She sure was.

Compared to Whitman's resources, Jerry Brown's campaign was sorely underfunded. But the truth was, he had enough money to compete; he just channeled it all into ad spots in September and October.

The trouble for Whitman was that by the time that Brown went up with his most effective spots, including one that transposed her statements with those of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, she could respond, but, satiated already on her spots, would anyone listen? Moreover, at the very moment when the stakes were highest, when it was essentially to match Brown's spots with her responses, the local advertising landscape was cluttered with spots of all stripes, making it all the more difficult to be heard.

Last week at Maria Shriver's Women's Conference, when Matt Lauer tried to pin Whitman and Brown down on pulling their negative spots, Whitman refused, and the audience booed. The scene was ripe for a Brown negative spot, again effective.

That is where Brown's experience in politics came in. As Cathleen Decker wrote in the Los Angeles Times today, Brown played Whitman's ubiquity to his advantage. "Campaigns, he told a San Francisco radio station in early spring, when he was still an unofficial candidate, "are long, arduous and mistake-prone. ... They go on 10 months. I can tell you that after a few months, people already start getting tired of you."

So Whitman, albeit with a very different tone, fell into the same trap as an overbearing reality show star or tabloid-soaked celebrity who doesn't know when it's time to take a bow.

Margaret Talbot writes in the New Yorker, "She had so much money to throw around that she seems to have overwhelmed and ultimately irritated Californians with her ubiquitous advertising. The more money she spent, the less voters seemed to like her. It didn’t help that she turned out to have hired an undocumented Mexican immigrant as a housekeeper for nine years, claimed not to have known anything about her immigration status, then turned on the woman, saying she should be deported."

The reason that this is seldom an issue for politicians is that so few have unlimited resources to wage a campaign. This year at least, that was for the best.

Nearly 7 million viewers watched Fox News' primetime coverage of the midterms, giving it its biggest audience ever for an off-year election.

According the Nielsen, it also was more than the audience of CNN and MSNBC combined. CNN averaged 2.4 million viewers and MSNBC had 1.9 million.

CNN's audience was a dropoff from 2006, when it drew 2.7 million viewers, according to the New York Times, and audiences were about the same for MSNBC.

In his new memoir "Decision Points," former President George W. Bush says that Kanye West's suggestion that he was racist because of his response to Katrina was an "all-time low."

He writes, "I faced a lot of criticism as president. I didn't like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was racist because of the response to Katrina represented an all-time low."

The comment is creating a stir, particularly from Bush's detractors, who are taking to citing a slew of other crises that may qualify as an "all-time low."

Bush told Matt Lauer in an interview for "Today": "He called me a racist. And I didn't appreciate it then. I don't appreciate it now. It's one thing to say, 'I don't appreciate the way he's handled his business.' It's another thing to say, 'This man's a racist.' I resent it; it's not true."

Lauer said to him, "You're not saying that the worst moment in your presidency was watching the misery in Louisiana. You're saying it was when someone insulted you because of that."

Bush replied, "No, and I also make it clear that the misery in Louisiana affected me deeply as well. There's a lot of tough moments in the book. And it was a disgusting moment, pure and simple."

Here's my take on what last night's results mean for the entertainment community --- whether for its lobbying interests in Washington or its desire to pursue its political passions.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is suffering from low approval ratings, but voters retained key parts of his legacy in a series of ballot propositions.

Chief among then was Proposition 23, which was soundly defeated. It would have rolled back the state's climate law to limit greenhouse gas emissions that was passed in 2006 and signed by Schwarzenegger. He enlisted a host of donors and supporters, including James Cameron, to help defeat the measure.

Voters also kept in place reforms of the redistricting process. A measure in which a citizens commission would redraw boundaries was expanded via Proposition 20, which extends their authority to congressional districts. And voters defeated Proposition 27, which would have eliminated the redistricting commission altogether. Schwarzenegger's effort to reform the process also was helped by the release of the documentary "Gerrymandering," DVDs of which were sent to state voters.

The victory of the No on 23 campaign, however, is seen as a glimmer of hope for environmentalists frustrated at the ability to pass a comprehensive climate bill in the Senate --- a prospect that is much more in doubt with the slimmer Democratic majority.

“While we are doing all these great things, there is no action in Washington. Isn’t that interesting?” Schwarzenegger said at the victory party. “The one great thing about California is we never wait for Washington.”

He also said that he had a message for out-of-state interests --- like Texas oil companies --- seeking to undo the state's environmental laws: "Hasta la vista, baby!"

"It looks like I'm going back again," Jerry Brown said from the Fox Theater in Oakland, in his victory speech in the California governor's race, returning him to the Sacramento statehouse that he was first elected to 36 years ago.

At least tonight, he looks like the smartest man in Democratic politics. Facing a huge financial disadvantage against Meg Whitman, he instead operated a lean campaign and didn't even go on the air with campaign ads until after Labor Day. He was helped by outside groups, including labor, but his non-presence throughout the summer made many state Democrats squeamish.

His speech was just as he was during the campaign --- meandering, sometimes moving, and uniquely Jerry Brown. He talked of forging a "common purpose," noting the polarized electorate, but also said that he still had "that missionary zeal to transform the world."

"In our society if we are to hold together we have to have a larger sense of agreement," he said.

Meg Whitman has just conceded the California governor's race to Jerry Brown.

"We overcame great obstacles to get this far," she said to supporters at Universal City, adding that she called Brown to congratulate him.

"It is time now for Californians to unite behind the common cause of turning around this state that we love," she said.

Whitman spent more than $140 million of her own money, and more than $160 million in total on the race, but her strategy of introducing herself to voters starting in mid-2009 may have created a sense of overexposure. By the time that Brown started spending just after Labor Day, and with the well-publicized fracas over her undocumented maid, it might have been ever-more difficult for her to wage a response that resonated with voters.

Barbara Boxer just appeared onstage at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel, declaring victory in what she called "the toughest and roughest campaign of my life."

Standing behind her was Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who was first elected with her in 1992 and faces reelection in 2012. Feinstein has not said whether she will run, but Boxer seemed to signal that would would happen when she said that work would now start on "Feinstein 2012."

Carly Fiorina has not conceded the race, noting that the returns still showed it neck and neck. But big chunks of vote still remained to be counted in Los Angeles and Alameda counties, big Boxer strongholds.

"Everything was thrown at us, including the kitchen sink," Boxer said.

Republican Sean Duffy, who was a star of "The Real World: Boston," won a race for a congressional seat in Wisconsin.

He's the first star of the series to win a seat in Congress. (Others have tried).

As great as the GOP wave was this evening, they did not gain one of their biggest prizes: The Nevada Senate seat held by majority leader Harry Reid.

He beat Sharron Angle and is poised to return to the Senate as majority leader.

As great as the GOP wave was this evening, they did not gain one of their biggest prizes: The Nevada Senate seat held by majority leader Harry Reid.

He beat Sharron Angle and is poised to return to the Senate as majority leader.

Rep. John Hall (D-N.Y.), former lead singer for Orleans, lost his bid for reelection against Nan Hayworth.

Hall had drawn on fellow musicians for support as he faced an uphill battle to retain his seat, including an event with Bonnie Raitt in August.

Republicans are poised to score big wins in the Senate, but it won't be enough to retake control.

One of their bigger pickups is in Illinois, where Mark Kirk defeated Alexi Giannoulias in the race for President Obama's former Senate seat. This was one of the few races that drew entertainment interest on both sides of the aisle, with Kirk raising money at a Hollywood fund-raiser from such figures as Jon Voight and Gary Sinise, and Giannoulias holding multiple events to raise money from industry donors.

Legalization of marijuana looked to be on its way to losing on the California ballot, according to the Los Angeles Times.

There had been anticipation that the initiative would help drive younger voters to the polls, but apparently they were motivated much more by the governor's race.