Responding for the first time to CNN’s report of his botched punking of one its reporters, James O’Keefe claims in a statement posted on his website that he “was repulsed by the over-the-top language and symbolism that was suggested in the memo that was sent to me, and never considered that for a moment.” Yet, at the same time, O’Keefe says, “I’ll admit that I liked the basic absurdity of meeting Abbie Boudreau on a boat and the idea of counter-seduction satire executed in a tame, humorous, non-threatening manner.”

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC): Sexually active single women and gays should be barred from teaching in schools.

Christine O’Donnell in her 2006 campaign for U.S. Senate: I know “classified information” about China’s “carefully thought out and strategic plan to take over America.”

Cleta Mitchell has been one the GOP establishment’s higher-profile election lawyers for a long time. Now she’s signed on to represent both Sharron Angle in Nevada and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware.

First poll out since Meg Whitman’s maid fiasco shows her down by 5 against Jerry Brown. And it’s a poll from Rasmussen.

Jon Stewart responds to Rick Sanchez’s diatribe.

The Sanchez episode, which cost him his CNN job, was also a fertile topic for CNN’s own Reliable Sources show. Watch.

Remember, for the latest, up-the-minute updates on the mid-term campaigns check out our live-updating TPM MidTerms Wire.

From the scene of the weekend rally on the Mall:

If you’re going to have a kinda sleazy but not terribly surprising conversation to try to get someone to drop out of a race — make sure no one is running a taperecorder. Today Sharron Angle is learning this one the hard way.

“That’s really all I can offer to you (Ashjian) is whatever juice I have, you have as well…You want to see DeMint, I have juice with him…I go to Washington, DC, and want to see Jim DeMint, he’s right there for me. I want to see Tom Coburn, he’s right there for me. I want to see Mitch McConnell, he’s there.”

Late Update: Angle lawyer Cleta Mitchell tells TPM the call was “a setup.”

Brian Beutler talks with a former member of the Institute For Basic Life Principles, the conservative Christian outfit that counts among its members Dan Webster, the GOP nominee running against Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL). The uber-patriarchal institute is big on the scriptural edicts that a wife should submit to her husband.

“There’s very clearly delineated roles for women, and those roles are all based on submission, they’re based on self denial, on obedience, and respect, and even the word respect translates into ‘you just take it, and with a smile,'” the former member, a woman, told us. “Because that’s how God would have you respond to tyranny and abuse.”