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Look out. Grandpa McGrumpy got a little testy and decided to pull out old St. Ronnie's corpse after Fox's Shepard Smith dared to call him "an interventionist" and bring up McCain's "joke" about bombing Iran during a discussion about Rand Paul's filibuster this week.

McCain Says He, Not Rand Paul, Represents ‘Party Of Ronald Reagan':

At a time when there appears to be a burgeoning rift in Republican ranks over the government's use of drones, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Friday argued that he, not Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), represents former President Ronald Reagan's true legacy in the party.

In a tense interview on Fox News, anchor Shepard Smith brought up the emerging schism between hawks such as McCain and non-interventionists like Paul.McCain and his longtime ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) each blasted Paul earlier this week for the Kentucky libertarian's epic 13-hour filibuster over the nomination of John Brennan to lead the CIA.

Smith brought up McCain's ardent support for military intervention in the past, as well as an infamous Beach Boys parody once sung by the Arizona Republican that seemed to express support for bombing Iran. The latter reference drew McCain's ire.

"You really believe that?" McCain asked Smith incredulously.

"Sir, all I'm asking is is it your sense that Rand Paul may be bringing together people in the basement who align maybe in some cases more closely with the left than with the right," Smith said.

McCain bristled at Smith's reference to his "joke" about a strike against Iran and then argued that his vision of establishing "peace through strength" upholds Reagan's legacy more than Paul's isolationism. The two-time presidential candidate also quibbled with the notion that he's an "interventionist."

"I'm of the party of Ronald Reagan and there's been a debate in our party for years and years about whether we should withdraw to fortress America or not. But to say we're interventionists is a mislabeling and absolutely false," McCain said. "We are for a strong America and we believe that's the best way to prevent war rather than a weakened military, which many of my colleagues now support who are the isolationists, which goes all the way back to post-World War I."

McCain is apparently hoping the country's collective amnesia prevents them from even remembering as far back as the Bush administration.

He didn't look a whole lot happier than he was earlier the previous day when he shared an elevator ride with Paul.

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Stories like this one aren't going to help the Republicans much with their so-called "rebranding' effort: Virginia is for lovers of their own currency:

Virginia sure has been a hotbed of activity on issues with national implications, hasn't it? Republicans in the commonwealth pushed a scheme to rig the electoral college (which failed soon after), launched an ugly redistricting scheme (which now appears doomed), and crafted absurd voter-ID bill (which seems likely to become law).

And while all of those are clearly important, this is the one that amazes me.

Virginia Del. Robert G. Marshall fears that a financial apocalypse is coming and only one thing can save the Commonwealth: its own currency.

The idea that Virginia should consider issuing its own money was dismissed as just another quixotic quest by one of the most conservative members of the state legislature when Marshall introduced it three years ago. But it has since gained traction not only in Virginia, but also in states across the country as Americans have grown increasingly suspicious of the institutions entrusted with safeguarding the economy.

Marshall's proposal sailed through the House of Delegates this week, passing by a two-to-one majority.

No, seriously.

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A voting expert from a nonpartisan think tank on Thursday deflated the hype that new voter restrictions are necessary when he told Fox News that voter fraud was as rare as "winning the lottery."

Brookings Institution nonresident fellow Michael McDonald explained to Fox News host Shepard Smith that the instances of in-person voter fraud were "very low."

"We've had millions and millions of voters over the last years and the likelihood of vote fraud occurring is on the order of winning the lottery," McDonald said.

"Winning the lottery is like 11 billion [to one]," Smith noted.

"Yes," McDonald agreed. "It's a very rare, infrequent sort of thing. But when it does happen, we are concerned. And election officials do take these allegations seriously, they investigate them fully. Usually what happens is, the allegations come out and then afterwards we find out that maybe someone signed on the wrong line on a poll book or something of that nature, and that's the source of the error. It wasn't really that vote fraud occurred."

Fox News has traditionally played a central role in promoting laws that often disenfranchise older and minority voters who tend to vote Democratic. They have set up a voter fraud email hotline and aired a "Stealing Your Vote" special report earlier this year that declared, "Voter fraud is still rampant."

The network recently hosted conservative columnist John Fund to defend Pennsylvania's voter photo ID law.

"To deny that voter fraud isn't going on is to frankly deny reality," Fund insisted.

A study by the Brennan Center for Justice warned last year that voting restrictions passed by Republican lawmakers could suppress as many as 5 million votes in 2012.

(h/t: Media Matters)

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After President Obama finally came out in support of gay marriage this week, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart explained this Thursday evening just how far we've come as a nation on the issue when this is the change in the narrative over at Fox News.

STEWART: And this is the true measure of how far we’ve come as a nation. In like five years, the prime talking point from Republicans about people who support gay marriage has gone from, "It will destroy society via turtle f**king," to, "Oh, of course you’re for it. You’ll say anything popular to get re-elected." And that is progress.

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After President Obama affirmed his support for same-sex marriage Fox News anchor Shep Smith had an uncharacteristic reaction from someone who works for Fox:

“The president of the United States: now in the 21st century."

Ed Henry then intoned that after North Carolina had just banned same-sex marriage through a constitutional amendment only last night it might make it harder for Obama to carry the state in November.

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Saturday Night Live took another shot at Mitt Romney's inability to connect with voters during their opening segment this weekend, with Bill Hader back as Fox's Shepard Smith and Jason Sudeikis as Mitt Romney. SNL had Romney stepping in it again by bragging about his expensive Italian shoes, took a shot at his five sons who are out on the campaign trail with him and at his embracing Kid Rock or anyone else he can find to endorse him with the trouble he's having in the primaries.

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Since so many of the undeclared potential presidential contenders decided to skip the first official Republican primary debate, Saturday Night Live decided to treat us to their version of the GOP 2012 Undeclared Candidates Debate, with Tina Fey returning as Sarah Palin.

The segment also featured Bill Hader as Fox's Shepard Smith, Jason Sudeikis as Mitt Romney, Darrell Hammond as Donald Trump, Kristen Wiig as Michele Bachmann, Bobby Moynihan as Newt Gingrich and Kenan Thompson as the Rent is Too Damn High Party's Jimmy McMillan.

As expected, Fey stole the show with her Palin impression.

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Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin was nearly drowned out Monday by protesters in Wisconsin chanting "tell the truth!"

"Shep, you're going to have to listen above the hecklers as I answer your question," he said to Fox News anchor Shepard Smith.

While neither Smith or Toobin addressed the demonstrators directly, Smith made a passing reference as he ended the segment.

"Mike Tobin, with not a lie in the bunch," he said.

Only days before, Fox Business reporter Jeff Flock was also met with shouts of "Fox lies!" during his segment.

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Continuing the theme of this week of publicly shaming Republican Senators who've voted to deny 9/11 First Responders, Rachel sings the praises of Fox News' Shepard Smith for calling them on this.

RACHEL MADDOW:Shep Smith making a hullabaloo on his show about the Republicans who are not supporting health care for 9/11 first responders means that those Republicans might feel compelled to explain publicly why they don't support health care for 9/11 first responders.
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All hail Shep Smith at Fox News, and I'm not kidding. Because Fox News is an outlet that can get return calls from Republican senators most of the time, unlike some other people I know who shall remain nameless, but who are me.

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At least one Fox News host is willing to hold Republicans accountable for blocking a bill that would provide health benefits to 9/11 first responders.

Fox News' Shepard Smith called out Republicans by name Monday, placing individual responsibility for their successful filibuster of the bill and refusals to come on his show to talk about it.

While Smith noted that they blocked the bill "in lockstep."

"We called a lot of Republicans today, who are in office at the moment," he said. "These are the one who told us no: Sens. Alexander, Barrasso, Cornyn, Crapo, DeMint, Grassley, Kyl, McConnell, Sessions, Baucus, Gregg, and Inhofe."

In addition, Sens. Bunning, Coburn, Ensign, Graham, Hatch, and McCain failed to respond to his request at all.

"I'm not really surprised, but what is your take? Why does no one want to talk about this?" Smith asked former Republican Gov. of New York George Pataki.

"I can't tell you why they didn't come on and talk about it but I do believe that it's important that the Senate act and I hope they act before they break," Pataki said.

House Resolution 847, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, would provide $7 billion in benefits to workers that responded to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Many of those workers are now experiencing health problems such as cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease.

For his part, Smith seems to be the exception at Fox News, where only one other personality has gotten angry about the 9/11 first responders bill -- but he neglected to mention that Republicans were the reason for its failure.

"Shame, embarrassment, outrage, anger, all are proper reactions to the conduct of our Senators, who will now find one excuse after another to explain away the fact that they have turned their back on American heroes," Peter Johnson Jr. said last week. "Heroes whose only sin was to expect nothing for their service and were then promised the world by politicians who couldn't take enough pictures with them."

While other mainstream media outlets have yet to cover 9/11 responders during their nightly news coverage of the lame duck session, Comedy Central's Jon Stewart devoted his final show of the year to the subject.

Stewart noted that the only network that fully covered the topic was Al-Jazeera.

"Our networks were scooped with a sympathetic Zadroga Bill story by the same network Osama bin Laden sends his mix-tapes to!" he exclaimed. "This is insane!"
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Edit: Today Shep Smith called out Tom Coburn (R-OK) for vowing to block the bill until the next session, for no real reason other than personal pique.

SHEPARD SMITH: He is the man who is vowing to slow this down or block it, so that the necessary funding for the illnesses of the first responders who made it to Ground Zero to try to save lives on the day that America changed -- remember? This is the Senator who is vowing to block it so that it doesn't make it through. Sen. Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma.