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Politics Today: Trump GOP Debate In Limbo, Everybody Hates Congress, And More

Tracy Bloom |
December 9, 2011 | 12:12 p.m. PST

Deputy Editor

Donald Trump told Fox News Business Channel on Friday he might cancel his GOP presidential debate after Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann became the latest candidate to decline an invitation to the event. Bachmann follows Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Ron Paul and Jon Hunstman in skipping out on the Trump-moderated debate. Only Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum accepted Trump's offer.

Trump is most indignant that Bachmann declined an invitation to his GOP presidential debate. According to Trump, Bachmann approached him four times and told Trump she would consider naming him as her running mate if she won the nomination. Said Trump: ""She said if she wins, she would like to think about me for the vice presidency. Most importantly, I did a two-hour phone call for her with her people. ... And after all that, she announced she was not going to do the debate. It's called loyalty. How do you do that? It's amazing to me."

Stephen Colbert apparently tried to one-up Trump by sponsoring the South Carolina presidential primary. Yes, the actual primary. Colbert offered the state GOP $100,000 for the sponsorship opportunity. Alas, Republicans rejected the offer, and the awesomeness that would have been "The Colbert Nation Super PAC Presidential Primary" will not happen. South Carolina's presidential primary is scheduled for January 21.

Anti-incumbent sentiment is at an all time high, according to a new Gallup poll. More than three-quarters (76%) of registered voters say most members of Congress do not deserve to be reelected. When asked whether they would reelect their own representative, however, more than half (53%) said yes. If only constituents could vote outside their district...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ken.), son of GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul, is helping his father go after Newt Gingrich. The younger Paul slammed the Republican presidential frontrunner in an op-ed that ran Friday in the Des Monies Register.

Herman Cain is considering taking legal action against the women who came forward and accused the one-time Republican presidential candidate of sexual harassment. Cain told Fox News on Thursday: "Without compromising anything my attorney and I are working on, we are not done proving or demonstrating -- there will be more."

POLITICAL AD WATCH: A Pro-Romney "Super PAC" is taking aim at Gingrich, trashing the candidate in a new political ad called "Smiling." According to the ad, which features a photo of a smiling Barack Obama at the beginning, the president's plan to "Brutally attack Mitt Romney, and hope Newt Gingrich is his opponent" is working. Watch the ad here.

GAFFE OF THE DAY: Oops, he did it again! The gaffe machine known as Rick Perry doesn't know how many Supreme Court justices there are, nor can he correctly name one of the justices, Sonia Sotomayor. Railing against so-called "activist judges" during an appearance in Iowa, Perry referred to Sotomayor as "Montemayor," then referred to the "eight unelected" judges.  There are, of course, nine justices on the Supreme Court.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: Stephen Colbert is a huge fan of Rick Perry's controversial "Strong" because of its strong pro-Christmas position. Watch his hilarious take on the ad from last night's "Colbert Report":

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