What a week! Sorry I wasn't around more, illness struck and put me out of commission for a few days. Looks like there was lots going on in my absence, but a few quick management updates:

• We're looking forward next week to a visit from Jeff Faux, founder and senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, to discuss his new argument that the global economy (and therefore the globe) is run by an investor elite he's named "The Party of Davos." Check out his previous piece in Democracy Journal and come prepared with thoughts for him on Monday.

• A warm welcome to Katha Pollitt, who joined us on Wednesday as a Special Guest and will be joining to Coffee House as a regular contributer in March.

• Special thanks to Amanda Marcotte for joining us for the week to share her thoughts on blogging, religion, political debate and presidential politics. Those were some amazingly long discussion threads...
  

• And, a happy announcement that literature professor and retired solo blogger Michael Berube will be joining the Coffee House in March to share his thoughts. But warning: he's one of the 100 most dangerous professors in America.

I hope everyone had a good week and shared some wisdom. I'm sure it'll be a busy weekend and then back to work on Monday!

Paul Rieckhoff, head of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, at TPMCafe:

I am extremely pissed off about the recent news out of Walter Reed Hospital. And you should be too. Turn off the non-stop coverage of Anna Nicole Smith and let's have a little talk about how we treat our returning heroes.

Jessica Valenti, Executive Editor of Feministing.com, joined TPMCafe's Coffee House today. Here's her first post.

Jessica Valenti, Executive Editor of Feministing.com, has agreed to join us as a regular contributer to the Coffee House. You can read about her here or here.

Josh and I are excited to have her with us, so give her a wonderful Cafe denizen welcome when she starts writing (hopefully later today!).

Greg Anrig, Jr. at TPMCafe: enough of the "third way." "The right is the problem – not Bob Kuttner or any other real or conjured counterpart on the left."

I suspect Mitt Romney's candidacy, whatever its other successes and failures, will provide endless fodder for conversations on the pros, cons and contradictions of religion in US politics. Case in point: this past three-day weekend, responding to a voter who declared that because of his Mormonism he did "not know the Lord," he declared in Florida that:

"We need to have a person of faith lead the country."

Andrew Sullivan jumped on the statement, arguing that Romney's attempt at placing a religious test on the office equated fighting anti-Mormon bigotry with anti-atheist bigotry. Oliver Willis wondered aloud whether or not Romney has read the Constitution. Atrios worried about the slippery slope leading us to:

"We need to have a member of the Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915 to lead this country."

Our own Nathan Newman wasn't so worried.

Read more »

At TPMCafe this morning, former Edwards Campaign blogger Amanda Marcotte makes the case for the "vulgar masses," defends her use of terms like "Christofascist," and recounts her experience with the right-wing smear machine.

Make sure you don't miss her thoughts in the comments.