TalkingPointsMemo.com announced four straight months of the highest traffic in its history aside from the 10 weeks before the 2008 presidential election, as well as three hires.

The political-analysis site set new monthly unique-reader marks from June-September of 1,665,146, 1,724,824, 1,851,454 and 2,084,889, respectively, resulting in 54% more viewers of the site in September than in May.

TalkingPointsMemo.com also announced the hires of Reuters.com's Ben Frumin as senior news editor, as well as the additions of The Washington Times' Christina Bellantoni and Hotline's Evan McMorris-Santoro to its new bureau in Washington, D.C. Bellantoni will cover the White House, while McMorris-Santoro will focus on campaigns and elections.

Netscape founder Mark Andreessen led a financing round in July of $500,000-$1 million for TalkingPointsMemo.com parent TPM Media.