Take MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow live on location from Newark, Del., the site of a hotly contested U.S. Senate race. Mix that with the local beat reporter of the state’s largest newspaper that openly admitted her role model is Helen Thomas. The result: Unfavorable coverage for the conservative Republican in said race.

On the Oct. 5 broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,’ host Rachel Maddow wanted to give her viewers a taste of the local Delaware media, since U.S. Senate Republican nominee Christine O’Donnell had announced she would go with a more local media strategy in her upcoming contest with the state’s Democratic nominee, Chris Coons. Appearing on her show were Ron Williams, a political columnist and reporter Ginger Gibson, both of the Wilmington News-Journal.

Williams has made his view clear on O’Donnell over the past few months with his columns. Even in his most recent column he cast aspersions on O’Donnell, but that’s what columnists do. But his colleague at the News-Journal, Gibson lamented her inability to have access to the O’Donnell campaign.

Appearing as a guest on Tuesday’s Joy Behar Show on HLN, comedian Bill Maher praised Jimmy Carter as "a better proponent of what Democrats actually believed in," and asserted that it was "fantastic" when Carter bragged about never taking military action against anyone during his tenure, as the HBO host complained about the modern day Democratic party. Maher: "He was a better proponent of what Democrats actually believed in. He was saying the other day, I heard him on 60 Minutes say that during his administration they never fired a shot, not a bullet, not a missile. He said, you know what, I thought, as the world's superpower, we had the obligation to be the peacemaker. I think that's fantastic. What a choice that would be for a voter because we don't have that kind of choice."

Host Behar complained: "And the tragedy is that Jimmy Carter has been vilified as the worst President in the United States history, practically, besides George W. Bush, of course, and it's really not very nice for people to say that."

During a discussion of Delaware Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell in which Maher took shots at her religious beliefs, he declared, "I need someone in the Senate who believes that global warming is real and the Earth is not 6,000 years old," leading Behar to add, "I know. It's true. I mean, maybe they should be given an IQ test before they can even run."

Maher also voiced support for raising taxes on the wealthy, claiming that increased taxes "healed" the economy in the 1990s. Attacking the credibility of supply-side economic theory, he dismissed the benefits of cutting taxes on the wealthy as he declared that the wealthy would use their money to purchase more boats, seemingly oblivious to the fact that middle class people build boats and therefore benefit financially when they are purchased by the wealthy. Maher:

Is it funny to suggest Christine O'Donnell is a murderer? Stephen Colbert thought so, in a skit last Wednesday. On Friday night's Real Time with Bill Maher, instead of playing a real clip from his old show Politically Incorrect, Maher created a fake one, so O'Donnell could be smeared as a killer. Alex Bornstein, the actress who performs the voice of Lois on Fox's Family Guy, put on a frumpy dress and curly wig to play O'Donnell, and said: "Like, you know, one time, during a game of Truth or Dare, me and my friend Becky killed a Mexican."

Edie McClurg (best known as the principal's secretary on Ferris Bueller's Day Off) then said, "Ohhhh, that's f---ed up." Earlier in the skit, the fake O'Donnell also reported she had repeated pregnancies to sell stem cells and thought anal sex was approved in the Bible:

FAKE O'DONNELL: We've all done things we regret. In college, you know, we used to get pregnant all the time on purpose, just so we could sell the stem cells. I'm not proud of that! It's just, it was the 80's, you know?

CHRISTOPHER "KID" REID: That's messed up, right there.

George Will on Sunday gave a much-needed education to the entire "This Week" panel about how the Tea Party is moving the GOP in a positive direction that could alter politics in this nation for years to come.

As Christiane Amanpour and her Roundtable guests - Democrat strategist Donna Brazile, National Journal's Ron Brownstein, and Republican strategist Matthew Dowd - all fretted about the so-called Civil War brewing in the GOP, Will was once again the voice of reason. 

"At the beginning of the year, the question was, will the Tea Party people play nicely with others and will they obey the rules of politics? Who's sort of not playing nicely?" asked Will.

"Mr. Crist starts losing the primary to a Tea Party favorite Rubio. He suddenly discovers that he's an independent and changes all his views overnight," he continued.

"Mrs. Murkowski loses a primary and suddenly discovers that she has a property right in her Senate seat and she's going to run as a write-in. Senator Bennett thought of that in Utah, Senator Castle in Delaware is thinking of a write-in candidate. Who are the extremists?" (video follows with transcript and commentary): 

Two weeks ago most Americans had never heard of Christine O'Donnell.

Now, she's the brunt of a vulgar joke on the opening sketch of "Saturday Night Live's" first show of the new season.

In it, the GOP nominee for Senate from the state of Delaware - played by Kristen Wiig - met with members of the Republican National Committee to decide a campaign strategy.

As they went over some of the skeletons in her closet, she informed them that she's reversed her position on masturbation.

"I will have you know that I masturbate constantly," said Wiig. "I masturbated this morning when I woke up, again in the shower, then while eating breakfast, and in the taxi on the way over here."

Wiig continued, "In a few minutes, I'm going to want to masturbate again" (video follows with commentary):