Here’s a strange pairing. It’s MSNBC’s newest contributor, David Axelrod, former top political advisor to President Obama, and Joe Flores, a self-proclaimed “media hack” covering the oppressed in East L.A. In another pairing, we also think he weirdly looks like he came out of the same womb as Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.).

On Friday morning, David Axelrod appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program and had his mustache shaved off. This all stems from an electoral bet between Axe and host Joe Scarborough. While Axelrod WON the bet, he agreed to shave the ‘stache anyway since Joe and Mika Brzezinski helped raise a million dollars for his charity. It’s the first time that Axelrod has had a hairless upper lip in 40 years.

Sure, it was a little hokey to see it all play out, but a million dollars for a charity is a BFD, so we can live with it.

Apparently, it’s too much for some people. One of them is WaPo’s liberal blogger, Greg Sargent.  Read more

On Wednesday morning’s “Morning Joe” program, Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod made an on-air bet that he would shave off the mustache he has worn for 40 years if President Obama lost Minnesota, Michigan or Pennsylvania. According to HuffPost, Axelrod said, “”I will come on ‘Morning Joe’ and I will shave off my mustache of 40 years if we lose any of those three states.”

That might be a dangerous strategy. Maybe a voter who was planning on voting for Obama will switch his or her vote JUST to see the freakshow that hides under that hair on upper lip. Host Joe Scarborough joined in and said that if Obama won all those states, he’d grow a mustache.

The show resulted in mustache demands right here in Washington… Read more

White House top political advisor David Axelrod appeared on MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown” with hosts Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd. While making a joke about POTUS’s birthday, he flubbed the name of the show.

Guthrie: What did you get the President for his birthday?
Axelrod: That’s between him and me. It’s a six-volume set of The Morning Rundown.

Guthrie replied, “David, it’s The Daily Rundown. Don’t worry about our feelings. Not The Morning Rundown, The Daily Rundown!”

CNN’s Candy Crowley, who hosts “State of the Union,” is adding spice to her Sunday show. It’s a new feature called “Getting to Know…” where she asks her (sometimes) very stiff political guests off-beat questions during commercial breaks that loosen them up.

“What do you do just for fun?” she recently asked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has apparently taken a fancy to the “Washington Nats.” It’s hard to hear, but he says he “windsgh down” the evening by watching the Nats.

Crowley gets McConnell chuckling hard when she asked what the 15-year-old McConnell wanted to be when he grew up. He says that was the year he won election as president of the student body – his first campaign win.

His favorite place to retreat to outside of Kentucky? That would be the U.S. Virgin Islands (where he and his wife, Elaine Chao, honeymooned).

Crowley also questioned President Obama’s top political advisor David Axelrod. Favorite comfort food? “Pizza,” he replied. “I eat for comfort, which can be a real problem.”

Watch the videos here and here.

George Stephanopoulos‘ first guest as host of ABC’s “Good Morning America” will be none other than Obama’s top political adviser David Axelrod.

In a Sunday night tweet, Stephanopoulos announced the news:

@gstephanopoulos: Almost bedtime for me. First day on GMA tomorrow — and David Axelrod my first guest. Lots to discuss after watching Pres on 60
about 4 hours ago

“By the People” may be a documentary on the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, but the real break-out star of last night’s HBO premiere is Ronnie Cho.

DC media types like Chris Matthews, Candy Crowley and Richard Wolffe, and Team Obama- David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs, David Plouffe- all make frequent appearances, but Cho, the former campaign staffer turned admin staffer, was filmed working early morning hours in his boxer shorts. Now that is dedication. He tells FBDC, “I did it for him, I did it for America.”

The film is by Amy Rice and Alicia Sams and produced in part by actors Edward Norton and Tate Donovan, who were both at last night’s DC screening.

“We always hoped to get the opportunity to show it,” Norton said in comments after the film aired. “I look around the room and think this is our government now,” he said to laughter.

It was standing room only at the Park at Fourteenth– the White House’s Tommy Vietor, Jon Favreau and Obama’s Iowa political director Mike Blake were there, as well as NYT‘s Jeff Zeleny and Chicago Sun-Times Lynn Sweet, who were all featured in the HBO documentary.

“Shower scene is coming up,” Vietor joked, maybe one too many times. “That line is getting old” was friends’ response.

Photos continue after the jump…

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CNN’s Wolf Blitzer has a unique and exclusive sit-down interview with team Obama– White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, communications director Anita Dunn and senior advisor David Axelrod.

Today’s interview covers “oops” moments, the 3am wake-up call and the First Lady. Part two airs tomorrow.

• We told you late yesterday David Plouffe will be joining David Gregory on “Meet the Press” this Sunday. President Obama’s presidential campaign manager will be discussing his new book, “The Audacity to Win,” which hits stands next Tuesday. We also learned today Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will join the program.

• Bob Schieffer will be joined by White House senior advisor David Axelrod and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on “Face the Nation” Sunday.

• And on “Washington Week” with Gwen Ifill and the National Journal, you can expect to see Slate and CBS’ John Dickerson, WaPo‘s Ceci Connolly, McClatchy’s Nancy Youssef and NJ‘s Marilyn Serafini.

Notes from a briefing room press insider…

The T-Word: In a rare morning on-camera briefing, Press Secy Robert Gibbs tag-teamed with Jared Bernstein and Melody Barnes, chief WH economic and domestic policy advisors, respectively, to tout 250,000 saved/created education jobs reported under the Recovery Act. The announcement faced a skeptical press room (esp. on the lack of clarity on “saved” v. “created” numbers), and generated “transparency” contagion, originating with JB remarks — including that he “never contemplated this level of transparency” in local/state reporting to the RAT (independent Recovery Accountability and Transparency board). Capitalizing on the t-word, ABC’s Jake Tapper asked about the transparency of the health care debate (RG: “I do think the administration has been transparent”) and NBC’s Chuck Todd followed later with, “And this goes to the whole transparency question that Jake asked” to introduce a public option question that met with RG’s “I shockingly don’t have a lot new on this.” On bank bonuses, Bloomberg’s Hans Nichols questioned whether, “in the interest of transparency,” RG could discuss WH convos with banks reported to be ready to dole out excessive bonuses. RG said he didn’t know “who has talked to whom on this.”

Axe-ing Fox: In more colorful comments today, RG continued to engage the Fox/WH wars by elaborating on top advisor David Axelrod‘s Sunday comments. As for Axe charging that Fox is just trying to make money, RG clarified: “I assume all of you are trying to make money, but maybe I have misinterpreted your otherwise altruistic ventures.” Landing the conversation-ending uppercut, RG observed of the targeted network, “Sometimes programming can be tilted toward accentuating the most profits.” Ouch.

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