You probably know our reporters better. But behind the scenes Andrew Golis, TPM’s Deputy Publisher, has been a big part of TPM’s growth and accomplishments over the last three years he’s been working at the site. Today’s Andrew’s last day. He’s leaving to take a job at Yahoo! News helping create … what else, a new news blog. ‘Nuff said. We wish him luck and thank him for all his work.

We’ve just posted photos of Andrew’s impromptu going away party a few moment ago in our NY headquarters at our Facebook fan page. (If you stop by, take a moment to become a TPM fan on Facebook.)

With the surge in support for Doug Hoffman in NY-23 and the news that outside groups have dumped $3 million into the race, could it now be that Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava is the spoiler and spoiling it for Dem Bill Owens?

The three candidates in the NY-23 special election met tonight for the only debate of the campaign with all three candidates in attendance. Eric Kleefeld reports.

For all my fellow NJ-Gov fellow obsessives out there a quick update. Yesterday we had the Quinnipiac poll showing Corzine opening a meaningful lead over Christie — 43% to 38%. Well we’ve got three new polls out today. And it’s remains a mixed picture, with the upshot pointing to a crazily tight race. Read More

Asked today how much confidence she had in President Obama’s commitment to a public option, Speaker Pelosi said …

“I guess I’m just so busy with what I’m doing that I’m not worrying about what somebody else is doing, and I have confidence in the President of the United States. He wants the strongest best possible bill that will work for the American people. And we have to convince him that what will pass in the Congress is something similar to what we have in the House.”

Harkin on Lieberman …

“[Lieberman] still wants to be a part of the Democratic Party although he is a registered independent,” Harkin said. “He wants to caucus with us and, of course, he enjoys his chairmanship of the [Homeland Security] committee because of the indulgence of the Democratic Caucus. So, I’m sure all of those things will cross his mind before the final vote.”

Hillary is not too happy with Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts, telling Pakistani reporters that it’s “hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to.” That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Rachel Maddow follows up on the “flash” tea party rally we reported on yesterday, with its meager showing on the Hill for the House reform bill unveiling. Watch.

As you see, the news today is that Joe Lieberman says he’ll campaign for Republicans in 2010. And really, that’s not too surprising since he did that in 2008. And it’s not like he’s come back to the Dems in any real way since then.

What did strike me though is that Lieberman is apparently planning to run for reelection in 2012. Read More

Liz Cheney says George W. Bush showed more class than Barack Obama when he honored fallen troops — because Bush didn’t bring cameras along with him when he never went to Dover AFB.