Jon Stewart’s epic spoof of Glenn Beck.

Need I say more?

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) resists NRSC chairman John Cornyn big-tent strategy on candidate recruitment: “He’s trying to find candidates who can win. I’m trying to find people who can help me change the Senate.” That and other political news in today’s TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Hoyer says the House Dems are “very close” to having their 218 votes.

Yesterday’s Tea Party on Capitol Hill drew thousands of protesters from across the country. But how many exactly? Depends who you ask.

MSNBC reported yesterday that a Capitol policeman said there were 3,000 to 3,500 people there. Our reporters on the scene estimated the crowd size at no more than 8,000 or so.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), on the other hand, says 25,000 to 45,000. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) offered a similar estimate. And G. Gordon Liddy’s radio show producer implied it was more than a million. TPMDC’s Eric Kleefeld has the story.

Yesterday TPMDC’s Christina Bellantoni witnessed the arrests of 10 people in and around Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Capitol Hill Tea Party. We’ve got video of the arrests here.

Today, Capitol Police tell TPMDC that 12 arrests were made — but that none of the people arrested were Tea Partiers. Turns out they were anti-abortion activists. TPMDC’s Evan McMorris-Santoro has the story.

Details are sketchy, but all three major cable networks are reporting a shooting at an office in Orlando. The suspected shooter is apparently still on the loose, and around eight people have reportedly already been shot.

Several GOP lawmakers seem to have blown off House Judiciary committee votes on the Patriot Act in favor of toasting Tea Partiers at Michelle Bachmann’s rally against health care reform on Capitol Hill yesterday.

Reps. Steve King of Iowa, Trent Franks of Arizona, Randy Forbes of Virginia, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Louie Gohmert and Ted Poe of Texas all showed up at the Tea Party — and all missed Patriot Act votes that took place at about the same time. Some of the votes on Republican-sponsored amendments to the reauthorization of the Patriot Act were close enough that they might have passed had more GOPers bothered to show up.

TPMmuckraker has the story.

Details are still sketchy and the numbers keep changing. But it seems that at least six people were hurt in the Orlando office shooting. The suspected shooter is reportedly Jason Rodriguez, 40. He allegedly opened fire in the office of Reynolds Smith & Hill — in the building where he used to work. Rodriguez is still not in custody.

Orlando’s police chief has just confirmed that the suspected gunman in the Orlando office shooting has been apprehended. She also confirmed that at least one person was killed in the shooting.

The “independent” ethics adviser that astroturf lobbyist Jack Bonner told Congress he’d retained in the wake of the flap over those forged letters to lawmakers has backed out of the role, citing the TPMmuckraker-driven fallout over an ad he placed praising Bonner.