First, the bad news -- we'll be running repeat columns all week here at CW.com. I'm going to start a tradition here, I think, of running my five personal favorite columns from the past year in the last week on the calendar. This tradition may need some adjustment in the future, but the way the calendar falls this year, it's going to work out perfectly between the two year-end holidays.

One of the main reasons I'll be running past favorites this week is to devote my time, instead, to fixing up the site a bit. I'm almost done with updating (and, in some cases, writing) all of the static-text pages here (such as "About The Blog"), so that's one item I can almost cross of the list already. My next priority is to get the "Email Chris" page working again, as it has been broken for about nine or ten months, which is simply inexcusable (sorry about that). And my third priority will be to fix some annoying site bugs. I'll also be doing some chores that have slipped my attention in the past few months, and exploring a few writing projects that have been on the back burner for too long.

As for the good news -- the first person who commented last Wednesday on my article over at The Huffington Post was right -- Lawrence O'Donnell did indeed lead off his MSNBC show that night (12/23/10) by reading a quote from that day's article. Here's the transcript of his opening remarks:

As one blogger for The Huffington Post puts it, quote, "Obama had two choices after the midterm election. He could either have had a battle royale with Republicans over tax cuts for the wealthy and risk losing this battle. Or Obama could have cut a deal quickly in return for allowing the Senate time to move on many other important issues. He chose to deal." So, did the gamble pay off?

This quote was provided by the Daily Howler site, where they thankfully dug out my name to add to the story (which O'Donnell somehow neglected to do). I have written to MSNBC's The Last Word folks requesting a video of this segment (since it was not posted on their show's website for some reason), which I hope to provide here in the near future (or, at the very least, provide a link to view the video).

Anyone with too much time on their hands who is bored by repeat columns this week, feel free to send the show an email asking them why this clip isn't up on their website. Maybe they'll fix this oversight if enough folks show an interest. It's worth a try....

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant