After nearly twenty-four hours of speculation that Caroline Kennedy dropped out of the running for Hillary Clinton's seat because she knew she wouldn't get it, one of the crack reporters at the New York Times who Kennedy recently insulted as being better for the ladymag beat, Nicholas Confessore, reported yesterday that it's actually because she's got some nanny and tax issues. Whoops. Although, given Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's recent approval by the Senate Finance Committee despite his tax and nanny issues — let alone her time vetting folks as part of Obama's VP search team — you might understand why she thought it might not be a big deal. Hmm, different rules for men and women? How progressive.

But Kennedy is out and, reportedly, upstate New York Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand is in. She's actually somewhat of a strange choice, since the Democrats will have some trouble holding her district in a special election — and since New York is likely to lose two seats (probably from upstate) in the next redistricting, it'll be even harder to keep it Democratic in 2012. But she's also facing opposition because she's a rather conservative Democrat on issues from guns to LGBT equality — and a conservative Dem when Paterson had Carolyn Maloney waiting in the wings. Strange choice for his part — but at least you can't say that it's because she's easier on the eyes.

In other news, Barack Obama is set to lift the global gag rule "soon," though, for political reasons and so as not to piss of the fundies, he didn't do it on yesterday's Roe anniversary as Bill Clinton did. Of course, every extra day he waits is another day it stays in effect, so... um, let's get on that, mm-kay? I mean, he'll have at least until next week to sign the Ledbetter Act into law (it passed the Senate yesterday, but they changed some wording so it'll have to pass the House again) and you know he's not going to do two big feminist agenda items in a week, so this seems like a good week to get the gag rule done. Unless he's too busy "fisting" Michelle, as a Fox News body language expert who apparently had Monty Python-esque sex education called the Obama's fist-bumping habit:




But it's probably the Fox News viewers who make up the 25% of Americans that thought Obama was a Muslim on Election Day, so we probably shouldn't tell them was fisting really is lest we lose yet another reason to laugh at them.

Besides bringing fisting to the American conversation, Obama is bringing daily economic briefings to the White House to reassure everyone that he's on top of the issue, since surely he knows that the only thing that changes faster than the economy are tectonic plates. But when you heard it, you felt reassured, right? Hang a "Mission Accomplished" banner on Wall Street, then, the good times, they are a-comin'.

The good times are also coming for everyone but Hilda Solis, who's nomination to the Department of Labor is being stalled by Republicans over fears she'll make it easier for workers to unionize (hint: she will, that's part of why Obama got elected), and Lisa Jackson, whose nomination Senator John Barrasso is totally not anonymously holding up, that's someone else. Well, and the guy in New York who makes the "Drunken Negro Face" cookies and predicts Obama and Lincoln will soon have a lot in common. We're guessing he's gonna have some words with some big dudes in suits with earpieces. We're just sad it's not Hugo Weaving and his bug.

With all the focus on Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing Tuesday, we've sort of been neglecting the hearings of the other women of the Obama Administration, which have been going equally swimmingly. Lisa Jackson, Barack Obama's EPA nominee, faced down tough questions from Republicans who are really keen not to see anyone actually regulate at the EPA and are scared to death that companies might have to stop poisoning our environment in the name of Progress. But Jackson thinks science should trump political ideology — who'da thunk? — and said that environmental negligence weighs on her conscience. And you thought Hillary Clinton's hearings were hot.

And if you're not full-up with the womanly awesomeness yet, go check out the New York Times' article about Janet Napolitano in which it's mentioned that she quotes Monty Python, has a photographic memory, laughs at Ed Rendell and plans, basically, to save the world. Oh, and she represented Anita Hill. Come back when you're done swooning, because we're about to get to the bad news portion of the morning.

And that bad news is, of course, related exclusively to Obama's dudely nominees who — one by one — are either facing contentious confirmation hearings or delayed confirmation hearings for being, at a minimum, idiots. First up is Eric Holder, whose hearing is today. He get to face questions about the Mark Rich and FALN pardons, his involvement with a long-ago Gore fundraiser at a Buddhist temple (that's one for Napolitano's photographic memory banks, geez) and Rod Blagojevich, so it should be fun. But, hey, at least he's not Alberto Gonzales, right? Right? Are those crickets I hear?

Next up on the controversy train is Treasury nominee Tim Geithner, whose new problems stem from having neglected to pay self-employment taxes for four years despite having gotten paid extra by the IMF to offset the additional tax liability. Most everyone thinks that, like Holder, he'll nonetheless be confirmed, mostly because Republicans are unwilling to make a big deal about it because they think he's practically one of them, but his confirmation hearing has been delayed.

Finally, the newest nominee to face a delay is Republican Congressman and Transportation Secretary nominee Ray LaHood who, in the wake of the Blago scandal, might face just a touch more scrutiny at his hearing what with all his earmarks that benefited campaign donors. God, when was the last time there was a Republican corruption scandal?

Not that any of this is rubbing off on Obama, who is riding high in the polls and facing tremendous pressure to do politically popular things like eliminate torture, use the bail-out money for the housing crisis and adopt an appropriate dog. He's going to face more pressure to stay at the Inaugural Balls for more than 10 minutes.

And I could talk about Israel bombing more UN civilian targets in Gaza, but I'm scared that Joe the Motherfucking Plumber might be mean to me. CNN's Rick Sanchez, though, is not and he took him on yesterday in a segment that made my ladybits tingle.

• Enough states' electors have cast ballots for Obama by now that, today, he was officially elected President of the United States. [MSNBC]

• He then celebrated by announcing his intention to make Nobel-winner Steven Chu the Secretary of Energy, Lisa Jackson the EPA Administration and Carol Browner to lead a White House council on climate change. [MSNBC]
• He might also make Arne Duncan, the superintendent of the Chicago school system, his secretary of education. [NY Times]
• He was going to release the results of an internal report that showed that no one had anything inappropriate to do with corrupt Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, but U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald asked him not to. [Huffington Post, Time]
• Joe Biden tapped Time's Washington bureau chief, Jay Carney, for his communications director. [Politico]
• Caroline Kennedy has decided she does really want to be the next Senator from New York, and even called Al Sharpton for his blessing or whatever it is you get from Al Sharpton. [Huffington Post, Politico]
• Meanwhile, Lori Drew is still trying to get the charges against her dismissed. [Wired]
• And a 4-year-old broke into a toy store to play with some toys. [Breitbart]

The Greatest Silence: Rape In The Congo [HBO]

Related: The Greatest Silence Official Site The Greatest Silence: Rape In The Congo [Women Make Movies]

Earlier: Critics Find The Greatest Silence "Chilling" But "Frustrating"
"Here At The Hospital, We've Seen Women Who Have Stopped Living"
In Congo, They Rape Three-Year-Olds