Should the Buffett Rule be rebranded as the Romney Rule?

The Congressional Budget Office calculates that the U.S. will hit the debt ceiling sooner than expected.

For those of us who remember the 90s, you know Dan Burton was one of the key progenitors of The Crazy. Long before there was a Michele Bachmann or any of today’s crew, there was Dan Burton shooting a dead pig in the head to see how Vince Foster might have been ‘murdered’ or was it Ron Brown. Burton announced today that he’s leaving Congress. But we’re living his greatest moments here. And they’re pretty great. Or awful. Actually both.

Polls just closed in the portion of Florida in the Eastern time zone. Polls in the western panhandle close at 8 p.m. ET. (Fun fact: you can travel from Florida to Oregon and only lose an hour.) The general expectation is that the exit polls will allow the networks to call the race for Romney shortly after 8. TPM’s Evan McMorris-Santoro is at Newt’s election night rally in Orlando. A pretty subdued place tonight.

Thought the assault on unions in Wisconsin was bad? Get ready for what’s coming in Arizona.

County by county live election results right here.

We only have about 30% of the precincts reporting in Florida. But look at this map of the county results. Across the state, Romney is walloping Gingrich. But look in the Panhandle. So far at least Gingrich seems to be winning there. That part of the state borders Georgia, where Gingrich is from. So in itself that’s not totally surprising. But it may not just be that. It’s also the part of the state that’s cultural in the South. If the pattern holds up, I suspect you’re going to be seeing a lot of mention of this.

According to Team Romney, Mitt received no call tonight from Newt congratulating him on the win.

Two daughters and a son-in-law of Sheldon Adelson’s wife ponied up $1 million in 2011 for Newt Gingrich’s super PAC, about half of its total funding, new FEC filings show. That was before Sheldon himself got in on the act this month.

So can Newt hold on? Not to win the nomination. That boat has sailed and is pretty much over the horizon. But can he hold on through February and still command enough media attention to credibly remain in the race? Read More