MSNBC calls itself The Place for Politics, but the NBC news channel as well as Fox News, CNN, and CNBC are under the microscope for paying politicians to be analysts, who are out of office now, but may not be for long.

Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Chris Matthews, Larry Kudlow, Harold Ford, and Lou Dobbs are just a few of the analysts and show hosts who’ve either held office or have contemplated a run for office.

Brian Stelter writes about it in today’s NYTimes:

The benefit for the part-time, but highly paid, pundits is clear: it increases their visibility. “It makes sense for candidates to seek out positions in niche cable, because it is a direct pipeline to voters,” said Jonathan Wald, a former senior vice president at CNBC and an adjunct professor at Columbia’s journalism school. “It’s an automatic affinity group.”

The benefit to the viewers is less clear. Some experts say the arrangements can cloud the objectivity of the news organizations.

“As long as they are still newsmakers, there is a strong potential for conflict,” said Andy Schotz, the chairman of the ethics committee for the Society of Professional Journalists. At the very least, it can amount to an advantage for the analysts, and create a perception of favoritism.

Tomorrow evening, President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address to Congress just after 9pmET. Gov. Bob McDonnell will provide the GOP response. Here are the special coverage plans we’re hearing for the cable news networks.

	Wolf Blitzer and Campbell Brown will anchor coverage leading into the address along and post-response analysis along with John King. Soledad O’Brien will report on polling data and Jessica Yellin will moderate a focus group in Ohio. Anderson Cooper will report and anchor “AC360″ from Haiti at 11pmET. Larry King will be live at 12amET.
	“O’Reilly Factor” will end at 8:55pmET and Bret Baier will anchor the address, the Republican response, and analysis live until 10:30pmET. Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Joe Trippi, and Bob Beckel will contribute. Carl Cameron and Major Garrett will report. Greta Van Susteren will be live for “On the Record” until 11pmET. Sean Hannity will be live from 11pmET until midnight.
	Starting at 9pmET, Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, and Rachel Maddow will anchor coverage of the address and response. Live editions of “Countdown” and “Rachel Maddow” will air at 10:30pmET and 11:30pmET
	Fox Business will have coverage from 8-11pmET anchored by Neil Cavuto from the Newseum. Elizabeth MacDonald will host “Fixing America” beforehand and John Stossel will lead a “town hall” discussion afterward.
	CNBC special coverage begins at 7pmET with Larry Kudlow in D.C. followed at 8pmEt by “President Obama 1 Year Later,” which will be anchored live by John Harwood and Carl Quintanilla from Washington. CNBC will carry the address with and have reaction until 10:30pmET.
	C-SPAN will begin special coverage at 8pmET with “a historical look at Presidents in their first year in office” followed by the address and response. Coverage will conclude at 11pmET. C-SPAN2 will air live reaction from Representatives and Senators from the Capitol.
	Peter Cook will be in D.C. to anchor for Bloomberg with Al Hunt from 9-11pmET. Panel will include Tom Daschle, Martin Feldstein, and William Cohan.

We will update as we learn more.

Seen at Georgette Mosbacher‘s annual Christmas party tonight at her Fifth Ave. apartment: Fox’s Roger Ailes, CBS’s Les Moonves and Julie Chen, from CNBC Ron Insana and Larry Kudlow, the Foxies: Liz Claman, Martha MacCallum and Jamie Colby, from ABC Lynn Sherr, plus Felicia Taylor and Deborah Norville.

….when he appears on Larry Kudlow‘s CNBC show tonight. The Business Insider says they’ll be watching.

After leaving CNN the first time in 1999, there was talk the former “Moneyline” host would join NBC and appear primarily on CNBC. That never panned out, and Dobbs returned to CNN 2001.

Dobbs departed CNN a second time last Wednesday.

Tomorrow, polls will open following an off-year election season that’s included closely followed races in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York. Here is a rundown of special coverage on the cable networks:

	Wolf Blitzer will be in D.C. anchoring coverage of the returns for CNN’s “Election Night in America.” Campbell Brown, Anderson Cooper, and Larry King will have an election focus for their programs and there will be a special “Larry King Live” at 12amET. Gloria Borger, Candy Crowley, John King, and Jessica Yellin, along with other correspondents, will appear during primetime programming.
	FNC will have live reporting throughout the day from Major Garrett and Jim Angle in D.C., Carl Cameron in Virginia, Shannon Bream in New Jersey, and Eric Shawn and Molly Line in New York. Martha MacCallum will anchor exit poll results. Bret Baier will anchor live from New York at 6pmET. Shepard Smith will anchor the 7pmET hour when Virginia poll results are expected. Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity will host their regular programs with updates from Smith and Baier. Smith and Baier will also be on with Greta Van Susteren at 10pmET.
	Chuck Todd will anchor live from D.C. at 11am and 2pmET and Ed Schultz will be live from New York at 4pmET. Special live editions of “Countdown, “The Rachel Maddow Show,” and “Hardball” will be presented at 10pm, 11pm, and 12amET.
	FBN’s election night coverage starts at 8pmET and will be anchored by Neil Cavuto in New York. Guests include former NJ governors Christie Whitman and Jim Florio, Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), former VA governor George Allen, and PA governor Ed Rendell.
	At 7amET, PA Governor Ed Rendell will be a guest host on “Squawk Box.” From 7-9pmET, Larry Kudlow will anchor “A Special Edition of The Kudlow Report: Your Money, Your Vote” live from D.C. with guests including: Dick Armey, Lanny Davis, Ed Gillespie and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough. CNBC’s John Harwood and Hampton Pearson will also report.

We will update with additional information as we receive it.

Wednesday evening, President Obama will address the joint session of congress at 8pmET. On Friday, we reported that ABC, NBC, and CBS would be carrying the address and the subsequent GOP response (FOX broadcasting would not). Now, we’ve got full evening plans for the three cable news networks:

	Wolf Blitzer, Campbell Brown, and John King will lead CNN coverage of the address and response as well as the post-address analysis with the BPTOTV. “Larry King” and “AC360″ (with Anderson Cooper reporting from Afghanistan) will follow.
	Bret Baier will lead FNC coverage starting at 7:55pmET with analysis from Brit Hume, Stephen Hayes, and A.B. Stoddard and reports from WH correspondent Major Garrett and political correspondent Carl Cameron. At 9pmET, Bill O’Reilly will host “The Factor” live and special live broadcasts of “Hannity” and “On The Record” will follow at 10pmET and 11pmET.
	Keith Olbermann will anchor MSNBC coverage at 8pmET and then host a live “Countdown” at 9pmET. “Rachel Maddow” will be live at 10pmET and a live “Ed Show” will be on at 11pmET.
	Neil Cavuto will anchor Fox Business Network coverage from D.C. and host a post-address roundtable with former Speaker Dennis Hastert, Gov. Ed Rendell, and former H&HS Secretary Michael Leavitt (among others). Cavuto will be hosting a special edition of “Cavuto” from 6pmET until the address.
	CNBC will have a special edition of “Kudlow Report” at 7pmET. At 9pmET, there will be a special “CNBC Reports” with Dennis Kneale, Larry Kudlow, Steve Liesman and John Harwood.

CNBC’s Trish Regan just announced on air that she and her husband James Ben are expecting twins. Regan, who co-anchors “The Call” is due in early December.

We’re not experts, but we’re pretty sure a business anchor pregnant with twins is a sure sign of an economic recovery — or 11% unemployment, or both.

Also, Larry Kudlow has volunteered to babysit so he can teach them supply-side economics. Seriously, he did.

TVNewser has learned CNBC has made some Executive Producer shifts. Jerry Burke, who joined CNBC last summer, moves from EP of Power Lunch to overseeing primetime shows including Larry Kudlow‘s program and CNBC Reports. Sandy Cannold moves from primetime back to dayside and will now oversee Power Lunch and Street Signs.

Insiders tell us these changes were in the works before new SVP Jeremy Pink took over earlier this month.

Charlie Gasparino…Steve Liesman…Rick Santelli…Larry Kudlow. There really isn’t much else to say anymore. Some fireworks at 1:20, more at 3:30, and some boxing glove graphics at 3:40 (seriously). Happy Friday:

CNBC’s Larry Kudlow has ruled out a run for the GOP nomination for a Senate seat in Connecticut. He announced it on his show last night:

Several weeks ago I was approached by the Republican party to consider a run for the U.S. Senate in the great state of Connecticut. It was a flat evening conversation and one that I thought about, but to me it was never really a serious proposition. However the story seems to have a life of its own now, it started as a solitary blog post and then spread like wildfire and now CNBC, my network is getting questions from a number of high-profile reporters wanting to know what I am going to do. I’m glad they care. Today I am letting the world know that I am not running for the united states Senate. I belong right here at CNBC. This is my love. I just signed a new long-term deal here and I can’t think of anything else I would rather do.

Earlier this year, Kudlow’s MSNBC colleague Chris Matthews ruled out a run for the Democratic nomination for a Senate seat from Pennsylvania – a dalliance that lasted nearly a year.