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With the Supreme Court weighing in on the issue of gay marriage this week and such sorry pronouncements like the one we heard from Justice Samuel Alito where he called the issue "newer than cell phones or the Internet," The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took his viewers though some of the "evolving" views we've seen from our politicians over the recent weeks.

Sen. Rob Portman has finally decided to make his support for gay marriage known now that his son has come out, along with an ever increasing number of Democratic Senators whose views have 'evolved" on the matter as well, but we've still got the likes of Senators Saxby Chambliss, Marco Rubio and Fox's great hype hope for the Republican party, Dr. Ben Carson to contend with among others.

Stewart was especially harsh in his response to Carson, who said this to Sean Hannity on Fox this week:

CARSON: Marriage is between a man and a woman. [...] No group — be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in beastiality, it doesn't matter what they are...

STEWART: Yeah, let me just stop you right there. It's not, you know, whether you're having sex with another consenting adult, or a horse, or a doughnut, it's all the same. Actually, that's not fair. As Dr. Carson explained, his problem isn't with gays.

CARSON: It’s not something that’s against gays. It’s against anybody who wants to come along and change the fundamental definitions of the pillars of society.

STEWART: Oh. You think we shouldn't mess with anything that's considered a fundamental pillar of society. Ideal for an editorial cartoon. Alright, here we go.... slavery, segregation and Jim Crow.

I'd say Carson just threw whatever political aspirations he might have had on a national level down the toilet with that interview if they weren't there already.

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From this Sunday's This Week on ABC, former HP executive and California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina apparently believes that people's civil rights should be put up for a vote... because we all know how well that's worked out in the past. And don't dare call anyone like John Boehner insincere or uncompassionate, because heaven forbid that might hurt their feelings.

We'd hate to get weepy Boehner crying again. And God knows we can't have any of those activist judges deciding things like this. They're only supposed to act that way when it comes to writing new laws that give corporations the same rights as people my friends.

RADDATZ; Let's more on to another big topic for the Republicans this week, and that stunning announcement by Rob Portman that he now supports same-sex marriage. Obviously a personal decision for him, the only Republican senator to support same-sex marriage. George Will, does this go anywhere?

WILL: He will not be the last, because the demographic tide here is large, powerful and execrable. I have said on this program before, opposition to gay marriage is literally dying, it's an older demographic. And if you raise the question among young people, they're not interested. And I dare say this is one of the good things about CPAC. As you saw at CPAC, this was another division and again, a healthy one. It's largely young people attend CPAC. And this is not at the top of their agenda. It's not even on their agenda

RADDATZ: I might take awhile for them to die out, though, George.

DOWD: I think that there's been an amazing -- and George is right, there has been amazing -- in the last ten years, I think there's been almost a 20-point change in people's perception of gay marriage in this country. I think Rob Portman is another domino in this whole effect.

I think Republicans, any Republicans that stand in the way of this, are standing in the way of march of history on this.

Rob Portman I know well. I did debate prep with Rob Portman in years past. He's a good person. And the people that I think that have criticized him and said, oh, by the way, hHe only did it was a personal thing that affected him personally, he wasn't going to do it otherwise. To me, why do we criticize people for that? The person that started MADD, it was a personal thing. The people that -- many people who have come out against gun control have been personally affected by it. If somebody's path to the truth, or somebody's path to a place where we actually think they're open and compassionate is a personal decision, god be wtih them.

FIORINA: I think we have to be careful, because John Boehner's views, which are different from Rob Portman's views, are equally sincere. And I think when we get into trouble on this debate when we assume that people who support gay marriage are open and compassion and people who don't are not. It's why I believe the right way to solve these very personal issues is to let people vote on them, don't have judges decide it, don't even have representative government decide it, let people vote on it in the states.

I think people of both points of view, accept the democratic process. What they don't always accept is a bunch of self-important, self-appointed judges saying this is culturally the new norm.

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Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman recently reversed on his opposition to same sex marriage after his son came out as gay, but House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says that he would never support equal marriage rights for an LGBT child.

During an interview with ABC that aired on Sunday, host Martha Raddatz asked Boehner if he had talked to Portman about his change of heart.

"He has, in fact, called," the House Speaker admitted. "I appreciate that he's decided to change his views on this, but I believe that marriage is a union of a man and a woman."

"Can you imagine yourself in a situation where you reversed your decision as Portman has on gay marriage if a child of yours or someone you loved told you they were gay?" Raddatz pressed.

"I believe that marriage is the union of one man, one woman," Boehner repeated. "It's what I grew up with, it's what I believe, it's what my church teaches me."

"And I can't imagine that position would ever change."

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To this day, I cannot honestly tell if President Obama has been offering up things like chained CPI to Republicans because he is hoping to put them in a box and make them look completely unreasonable, knowing full well they're never going to go along with tax increases in exchange, or if he is cynical enough to think that going after the benefits of the elderly and the poor are going to go unnoticed by voters if they are willing to negotiate with Republicans, destroy the Democratic brand on New Deal social safety nets and marginalize the progressive base of the Democratic party.

The most generous read is that he's playing a dangerous game of politics and forcing Republicans to defend policies which are extremely unpopular with the public and putting himself out there as the "reasonable" middle in the hopes that most voters aren't watching the Kabuki theatre well enough to follow along. The worst is that he actually believes cutting benefits to seniors is some "balanced" approach to reducing our deficit when we've got record income disparity in America.

I am equally as perplexed and as irritated that Rep. Chris Van Hollen didn't give former Bush OMB director Sen. Rob Portman some pushback on this Sunday's Face the Nation when he played the Social Security-is-insolvent game, pretended that it adds to the deficit, when it doesn't, and conflated Social Security with Medicare and Medicaid.

They have their own set of problems that have nothing to do with Social Security, but everything to do with the fact that America has a healthcare crisis (whether it's government programs or private insurance) that Portman and his ilk in the Republican party refuse to do anything to remedy.

If Portman would like to "educate" the public, how about we start by not allowing him to lie to them?

It's also really disheartening to watch someone like Portman come on the air and fear-monger over deficits when the administration he worked for is largely responsible for the one we have now and not have that brought up to them. Every time one of them complains about that "Obama deficit," these charts should be shown on the air to rebut them.

Sadly, we're putting up with not just the media, but the Democratic leadership that isn't interested in challenging most of the GOP's lies when they come on the air. If anyone would like to contact Rep. Van Hollen's office to ask him why he's not willing to challenge Republicans when they lie about Social Security, here is his office's contact information.

Full transcript below the fold.

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You just gotta love Fox allowing the Budget Director for the administration that blew a mile wide hole in our debt and deficit to come on the air and fearmonger about how we're going to "become Greece" if we don't do something to get our spending under control, and talk about making "tough choices" to fix the mess he and his boss George W. Bush helped to create. But that's exactly what the viewers were treated to on this Tuesday evening's On the Record With Greta Van Susteren.

Portman was allowed to tell the lie that the Congress supposedly voted on President Obama's budget. They didn't as Media Matters explains here. He was also allowed the lie and claim that our current deficit is President Obama's fault, when, as we've explained here repeatedly and more times than I can keep track of, the deficit got as big as it did in recent years primarily due to George W. Bush's policies as this article explains.

He was also on there pushing for their latest proposal to kick the can down the road on the debt ceiling for a few months, and to withhold Congressional pay if the Senate doesn't pass a budget, which as TPM and others have noted, may not be Constitutional.

Par for the course for Fox, none of their viewers were made aware of Portman's background, the lies about Congress voting on the President's budget, or the real questions about whether their latest gimmick is even Constitutional. Instead, we were treated to more nonsense about how President Obama isn't "leading" unless he decides to gut our social safety nets and balances the budget on the backs of the working class, the elderly and the poor -- because God knows we can't do anything foolish like raising taxes or getting rid of any tax loopholes for those wealthy "job creators."

If there's anything you can count on over at Fox, it's someone being rewarded for governing badly and for them to make sure that their viewers have absolutely no reminder about anything that's happened in our recent history and that the Bush presidency is washed from their memories.

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I don't know why these Sunday talking heads show anchors like David Gregory even bother asking politicians questions if they're not going to push them for some actual answers. On this Sunday's Meet the Press, first Gregory had to hide behind the now defunct deficit commission co-chairs to point out the fact that Mitt Romney's math on his economic plan doesn't add up.

And when he asked Romney surrogate Rob Portman to give him specifics to counter their arguments, he got exactly none. All the audience got instead from Portman was carping about how the plan had been mischaracterized, without any explanation as to how. But rest assured, Mitt Romney's going to talk about in the debates. Never mind that the economy was supposed to be the topic of the first debate and we weren't offered any specifics then.

Gregory also managed to feign ignorance about Mitt Romney's six non-existent "studies" that are supposed to support his fuzzy math and trickle down economics. Maybe he was too busy getting ready for his next speaking engagement or learning some more dance moves to take some time to, you know... read. I don't think anyone had any high expectations for Karl Rove's dance partner when he was offered this job. Gregory continues to do his best to keep them right where they belong week after week.

Transcript below the fold.

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Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), a surrogate for Mitt Romney, claimed on Sunday that the Republican presidential nominee could win the White House without carrying Ohio in November -- even though no GOP candidate had ever won without the "Buckeye State."

During an interview on ABC News, senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper observed that President Barack Obama continued to have a comfortable lead of 6 points in Ohio, even after his poor performance in the first presidential debate.

"He can probably win the presidency without Ohio, but I wouldn't want to take the risk," Portman insisted. "No Republican has. And we're doing great in Ohio. If you look at the average of all the polls, it's about dead even in Ohio right now. And importantly, the momentum is on our side."

"It's turning our way. I think that's why you're going to see the president continue to attack, not focus on the substances of the issues that people care about, but instead continue the attack because things are not going their way right now."

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Poor Stephen Colbert. He was temporarily very excited over the prospect of Paul Ryan as our next President of the United States, only to have his hopes dashed by Mittens. After realizing he was going to have to live with Ryan only having the second spot on the ticket, Colbert went on to talk about how jazzed everyone's going to be with their plans to lower Romney's tax rate to 0.82 percent, gutting all non-defense spending, turning Medicare into a voucher program and ending Social Security.

Colbert also took a shot at Romney for having his son break the news to Portman and Pawlenty that they weren't going to be his running mate. Which as he noted was better than how he treated Chris Christie, who (according to Colbert) got the news from Rafalca the Romney's dressage horse, or Bobby Jindal, who Stephen claimed got the news from watching this very show.

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Please... let it be Paul Ryan - Romney to announce running mate Saturday in Va.:

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will announce his running mate Saturday morning in Norfolk, Va., his campaign said Friday night.

The short list of candidates - if there is one - is believed to include Ohio Rep. Rob Portman, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan. In a statement issued Friday night, the Romney campaign said the running mate would be revealed at 9 a.m. EDT at the Nauticus Museum. Romney is kicking off a four-day bus tour through swing states.

Speculation has focused in recent days on Ryan, the seven-term congressman. Conservative pundits have been urging Romney to choose Ryan in large part because of his authorship of a House-backed budget plan that seeks to curb overall entitlement spending and changes Medicaid into a voucher-like system to save costs.

Pawlenty was maintaining his Saturday schedule campaigning for Romney in New Hampshire, an official close to Pawlenty's political team said. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak ahead of the formal announcement.

The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial on Thursday, praised Ryan as a strong choice for Romney: "The case for Mr. Ryan is that he best exemplifies the nature and stakes of this election. More than any other politician, the House budget chairman has defined those stakes well as a generational choice about the role of government and whether America will once again become a growth economy or sink into interest-group dominated decline."

Romney's choice comes as he tries to repair an image damaged by negative Democratic advertising and shift the trajectory of a campaign that's seen him lose ground to President Barack Obama. Read on...

UPDATE: It appears my wish may have come true and that Romney is going to pick Ryan. I guess we'll see once the announcement is made in the morning. In the mean time, here's the crew over at MSNBC pretending that Ryan's budget policies don't matter all that much because as David Gregory let us know, some in the Republican party consider him a "visionary." If anyone wants a preview of what Meet the Press is likely to look like this Sunday, I'd say you've got one with this late night coverage of Romney's potential announcement of Ryan as his VP from MSNBC. Video below the fold.

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From this Monday's Your World with Neil Cavuto, Bloody Bill Kristol had some predictions for guest host Stuart Varney on Mitt Romney's timing and picks for veep. According to Kristol, Romney is going to pick next week, his guess on Thursday. And he believes the choices are down to Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Paul Ryan, who he says his magazine, The National Review is advocating for, and Gov. Chris Christie who Kristol claims is still in the running.

So I guess it's safe to assume Mittens will be waiting until the convention to announce his pick and it'll be Pawlenty or Portman, since Kristol's usually wrong about everything.