Why did Karl Rove schedule his hush-hush divorce to coincide with the Christmas week news brownout? The Internet is abuzz with speculation that Rove has made his alleged relationship with former prostitute Jeff Gannon a full time thing. Check out the timing: Gay marriage is thisclose to being legal in Washington, D.C.

“Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong it’s reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”

– Abraham Lincoln

In a radio spot targeting GOP frontrunner Rep. Mark Kirk, an active duty Naval intelligence officer, Birther pioneer Andy Martin says, “[There] is a solid rumor that Kirk is a homosexual … [and that] Kirk is part of a Republican Party homosexual club.” Martin may have no credibility, but the military makes it a practice under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” of investigating gay rumors. Now the question is, will they look into charges against a sitting Republican House member who’s running for the U.S. Senate?

“No one wants Rush Limbaugh to die. But they do want his doctors to fail.”

— TheFullGinsberg on Twitter

At the DSNC annual Christmas Day meeting, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, chair of the steering committee that wrote the GOP rebranding resolution, said his committee had settled on the name “New Dixiecrat Party” after studying the 1948 campaign platform of the old Dixiecrat Party. “We found that the 1948 platform was still remarkably well-suited to stand as the manifesto for our opponents in 2010 and beyond,” Frank said. “…Republicans today wouldn’t need to tweak a word.”

Six years ago, Republicans rammed through the Medicare prescription bill and funded it through deficit spending. Now 24 GOP senators who voted for that bill voted against health-care reform, even though the CBO says it will pay for itself. In a classic Kinseyan gaffe, Sen. Orrin Hatch admitted that when the GOP ran things, “it was standard practice not to pay for things…We were concerned about it, because it certainly added to the deficit, no question.”

Hypocrisy red alert: To hear Tea Bagger Rep. Michele Bachmann tell it, you’d think socialism was the scourge of democracy — the prime mover in the destruction of our freedoms — and yet, Bachmann has gotten fat off federal socialist farm policies to the tune of a quarter-million dollars. And her fellow Baggers, Sens. Charles Grassley and Sam Brownback, have slopped up $1 million and $500k, respectively.

Score one for the opposition in the War on Christmas.

Passing legislation, it turns out, is a long and ugly process. God, is it ugly. The compromises, both with powerful special interests and decisive senators. The trimming of ambitions and the budget gimmicks and the worship of Congressional Budget Office scores. By the end, you’re passing a compromise of a deal of a negotiation of a concession … It’s not pretty, and it doesn’t necessarily feel like winning is supposed to feel … It’s been a long time since the legislative system did anything this big, and people have forgotten how awful the victories are. But these are the victories, and if they feel bad to many, they will do good for more. As that comes clearer and clearer, this bill will come to feel more and more like the historic advance it actually is.

— Ezra Klein, writing in the Washington Post, on passage of the health care bill.