Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, who apologized to Ann Romney for controversial comments she made on CNN, was booked to appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, only to cancel today. In a statement to NBC, Rosen apologized for the cancellation, and explained her decision as such:

“But I have said enough and while I have unfortunately made the Producer’s job tougher today, I don’t have anything more to say… I will instead spend the weekend trying to explain to my kids the value of admitting a mistake and moving on.”

“Meet the Press” rarely gets a cancellation, and when it does, it usually makes news.

The news of the booking… and cancellation, comes after a contentious interview Rosen had with Wolf Blitzer yesterday:

Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen has apologized to Ann Romney over comments she made on CNN’s “AC360″ last night. Rosen said that Romney had “never worked a day in her life,” prompting outrage from political pundits. Romney responded to the comments herself on Fox News this morning, and a question about the incident was even asked at the White House daily briefing.

Rosen’s statement:

“Let’s put the faux ‘war against stay at home moms’ to rest once and for all. As a mom I know that raising children is the hardest job there is. As a pundit, I know my words on CNN last night were poorly chosen. In response to Mitt Romney on the campaign trail referring to his wife as a better person to answer questions about women than he is, I was discussing his poor record on the plight of women’s financial struggles. Here is my more fulsome view of the issues. As a partner in a firm full of women who work outside of the home as well as stay at home mothers, all with plenty of children, gender equality is not a talking point for me. It is an issue I live every day. I apologize to Ann Romney and anyone else who was offended. Let’s declare peace in this phony war and go back to focus on the substance.”

Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen appeared on CNN’s “AC360,” where she said that Ann Romney, the wife of likely GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, “has never worked a day in her life.”

That comment sparked a backlash from the Romney campaign, and led the news cycle this morning.

Ann Romney fired back herself on Fox News, speaking to Martha McCallum:

WATCH:
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We know you can’t wait for Super Tuesday, but hold your horses. First, Washingtonians vote tomorrow. Here’s the cable coverage:

• CNN’s Wolf Blitzer leads an hour of coverage from 8-9pmET joined John King, Gloria Borger and CNN contributors Hilary Rosen and Ari Fleisher. And since they can’t wait, Jim Acosta and Joe Johns will report from the Super Tuesday state of Ohio.

• Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier anchors from 10-11pmET. Baier will be joined by Bob Beckel, Charles Krauthammer, A.B. Stoddard, Steve Hayes, Kirsten Powers and Ed Rollins.

• MSNBC will be producing extended cut-ins during Saturday night documentaries.

CNN has announced its coverage plans for the 2010 midterm elections. As in previous elections, new technology will be a major part of the coverage, with returning favorites like the “magic wall” and “data wall’ being joined by the “CNN Election Matrix,” which will break down data in a visual way.

The network already revealed it will be adding more “virtual objects” to its coverage.

“We are taking capabilities of the Data Wall and quadrupling it in order to report the story in the clearest way we can,” said CNN senior VP and Washington bureau chief David Bohrman in a statement. “Viewers are ready for a rich meal of election items and with CNN’s technology on air and online, paired with the Best Political Team, we will serve an unparalleled election night experience.”

Wolf Blitzer will lead the network’s coverage, and will be joined by Anderson Cooper, Candy Crowley, John King and Soledad O’Brien. Other anchors, reporters and hosts that will be contributing to the program include Jessica Yellin, Dana Bash, Brianna Keilar, Ed Henry, Dan Lothian, Suzanne Malveaux and new 8 PM hosts Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker.

More information after the jump.

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CNN and two of its political analysts — Hilary Rosen and Alex Castellanos — are coming under some scrutiny this week for the commentators’ reported ties to BP. WaPo’s Greg Sargent wrote Monday:

This morning’s Washington Post reports that BP has retained the services of Rosen, a Democrat who heads the Washington office of the Brunswick Group, to help out with BP’s lobbying and public relations offensive inside the Beltway. Rosen has contracted out some of this work for BP to Castellanos…

NY Daily News’ Frank DiGiacomo writes today that some producers in CNN’s Washington bureau “are upset over this.” The network pointed out that neither commentators have been on the air recently. “Both Alex and Hilary are contributors used primarily to comment on political issues, and they are not being used to discuss the oil disaster story,” a spokesperson said to WaPo.

The Huffington Post “cut ties” with Rosen earlier this month when she began consulting for BP, though Rosen was HuffPost’s D.C. “editor-at-large” which is arguable altogether different from being a panelist.

According to a TVEyes search, Castellanos last appeared on the network on May 18 for primary election coverage and Rosen last appeared on June 9th to discuss women in politics. We were unable to find an instance where BP or the oil spill were topics either discussed.

This is not the first time a lobbying issue has come up with Castellanos, but we do know that CNN has had a history of disclosing — on-screen — professional ties its analysts have with other organizations.

So is this a real concern for CNN or is it blown out of proportion?

Greta Van Susteren called out The Washington Post’s “The Reliable Source” column today on Gretawire because the column did not “get the facts right” in a seemingly harmless item about Gov. Sarah Palin.

It relates to Tammy Haddad‘s video of birthday wishes for The Huffington Post’s Hilary Rosen, which featured Anderson Cooper, Tucker Carlson and Palin, among others. The item says she taped the greeting after her interview with Van Susteren, and then held up a sign saying ‘Happy Birthday.’ “She’d misspelled Rosen’s name, but was a good sport about giving a shout-out to someone who criticized her a lot during the campaign,” the item reads.

But Van Susteren took the credit for the misspelling today. “It was my mistake,” she writes. “It was not Governor Palin’s mistake! If the Washington Post had called me before it printed the below, I would have been happy to tell the facts.”

> Update: Amy Argetsinger, one of the authors of “The Reliable Source,” emails TVNewser: “And, you know, if Greta had called us first before blogging about us, we would have been happy to apologize and run a clarification. Naturally, we’re still happy to apologize and run a clarification.”

• Related: FBDC’s Patrick Gavin has dozens of pictures from the party, and after the jump, the full tribute video from Haddad’s site.

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Alright, the picture’s not fantastic. But when Hilary Rosen, CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein, Maria Shriver and Donna Brazile (l. to r.) struck up a conversation at the entrance of the CNN Grill, a dozen or so onlookers pulled out their cameras and cameraphones.

Maybe it’s all that coverage from Beijing, or Georgia, or Beverly Hills, but CNN would like to remind you they are still covering the presidential campaign. The network just sent out a press release touting their “Key Political Experts” who will “Span [the] Spectrum of U.S. Politics for CNN.”

The sort-of new commentators include David Brody, Alex Castellanos, Dana Milbank, and Hilary Rosen.

Click continued if you care…

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