Quickies

• Ron Paul's former secretary says Paul indeed read and signed-off on every single newsletter.  Anyone who believes Ron Paul didn't know the contents of newsletters printed under his name and signature until many years after they were written are only kidding themselves.  In other words, you're delusional.

• If you ask me this Duke Cunningham prison endorsement of Newt Gingrich is a setup by the GOP establishment.  There's no way the national party wants Gingrich to be the nominee, so what's better than leaking a personal endorsement from one of his former colleagues that is currently serving prison time for the largest congressional bribery scandal in American history?

• Fox News blames President Obama for job losses that happened when George Bush was still president.  Fair & Balanced all the way.

• Republicans are now claiming Gingrich, the former highest ranking Republican in the land, is not a conservative.  Good luck with that.  In a way, though, they are right.  Gingrich probably isn't all that conservative.  He's just Republican.  In that sense, Bush and Reagan weren't conservative either.  They were Republican.

• Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said he’ll introduce a form of the Buffett Rule – which would require that those earning more than $1 million will pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes – trying to capitalize on momentum stirred by President Barack Obama’s State of the Union last week.  The new tax rule has wide public support, which only means one thing.  The GOP will oppose it at all costs and Fox News will portray it as socialism and a redistribution of wealth.

• Dave Weigel discovers what a Tea Bagger rally looks like without heavy promotion from Fox News.