Last month, we reported that an autopen, not President Obama, signed the Patriot Act extension into law.

Some questioned the legality of using a machine instead of getting the president himself to sign a law, but the White House argued it was legit.

However, that explanation wasn't good enough for some Republicans in Congress.

On Friday 21 House Republicans sent a letter to the president expressing their disdain for the mass-signature facsimile machine. The missive calls for Obama to re-sign the Patriot Act in person.

"Mr. President, it is clear that assigning a surrogate the responsibility of signing bills passed by Congress is a debatable issue, and could be challenged in court," the lawmakers wrote. "That being the case, our request is that, out of an abundance of caution, you affix your signature to S. 990 [The Patriot Act extension] by personally re-signing the enrolled bill."

[You can read the full letter here (pdf) via CBS News.]

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One of the biggest challenges Keith Olbermann faces with his new weeknight show for Current TV is fighting prime time stalwarts Fox News, MSNBC (his former network) and, to a lesser extent, CNN for audience share. So media watchers will be eagerly awaiting the maiden ratings following "Countdown With Keith Olbermann's" Monday night premiere

But to hear Olbermann tell it, the early ratings don't matter.

At the end of a 20-minute conference call with the press Friday morning, the anchor made a preemptive strike against the opposition's PR, cautioning reporters not to regurgitate "any ratings spin that you see coming out of any operation ... which is, in a poor common vernacular, strictly bull***t."

Rather, Olbermann said, he's more interested in how many people will be tuning in a few years down the line, especially after the 2012 presidential election. He noted that "Countdown" was only clocking around 200,000 viewers when MSNBC first started airing it in 2003; it was averaging more than a million as of his abrupt departure from the network in January.

"There are no set targets. If the people in the truck from which we are directing this show, and there's like 10 of them in there, if they can see the show, that will be a satisfactory audience total for Monday night, and we'll go from there," he said. "We're in this for the long haul."

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The Senate Intelligence Committee has begun a preliminary investigation into allegations that the Bush White House pressed intelligence agencies to gather damaging information on a prominent critic of the Iraq war.

"The Committee is looking into this," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the committee, told The Lookout in a statement sent Friday afternoon. "Depending on what we find, we may take further action."

Late Wednesday, the New York Times reported allegations by former CIA official Glenn Carle that the Bush White House had sought to have both the CIA and the National Intelligence Council (NIC) look for negative personal information about Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor and Middle East expert who writes an influential blog, where he has voiced forceful criticisms of the Iraq war.

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Tim Pawlenty is back on the attack against Mitt Romney, suggesting the health care plan he passed in Massachusetts makes him a weak candidate against President Obama.

"I don't think you can prosecute the political case against President Obama if you are a co-conspirator on one of the main charges against the president on a political level," Pawlenty said in an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity.

The former Minnestoa governor's comments come after he backed off a harsh critique of Romney's health care plan during a 2012 presidential debate Monday night.

Last Sunday, Pawlenty coined the term "Obamneycare" in an attempt to connect the bill Romney passed in Massachusetts to Obama's legislation. It was the first time he'd openly criticized Romney on the issue, but on Monday, he refused to repeat the charge--prompting days of criticism.

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We at The Cutline are as burned out on the Anthony Weiner sexting saga as anyone else. Still, who can resist a good old-fashioned tabloid cover the morning after the (official) conclusion of a national political scandal? Today's winner is the New York Post, never one to be robbed of the opportunity to put a sexual pun on its, well, on its wood! (That's journal-ese for "front page headlines.") You can check out how the rest of the New York tabs handled the congressman's resignation after the jump.

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A more wholesome American scene could hardly be imagined: a bunch of kids selling lemonade on a summer's day.

But local authorities in Montgomery County, Md., saw things differently. They shut down the kids' venture and ended up fining their parents $500.

The Marriott and Augustine kids had set up their stand Thursday right next to the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, where the U.S. Open golf tournament has been taking place--bringing thousands of thirsty fans to the neighborhood. The kids planned to send 50 percent their profits to a charity that fights pediatric cancer.

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Weeks before he was indicted, John Edwards reportedly asked for millions of dollars from Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, a reclusive banking heiress whose financial support of the former Democratic candidate is the subject of the criminal case against him.

A source with knowledge of the request confirms to ABC News that the request was in the "millions of dollars" but declined to say why Edwards asked for the money. A lawyer for Mellon, who is expected to a key witness at Edwards' criminal trial, declined to comment, as did a member of Edwards' legal team.

The disclosure comes just weeks after Edwards was indicted on charges he broke campaign finance laws in attempting to cover up an affair with Rielle Hunter, a former staffer to his 2008 presidential bid who later gave birth to his child.

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In a pre-Father's Day interview for ABC's "Good Morning America," President Obama opened up about fatherhood, experiencing "love at first sight" when seeing his eldest daughter for the first time, and why the Secret Service could come in handy during his daughters' teenage years.

Obama offered nothing but praise for his daughters, saying he believes that--much to his wife's credit--his daughters are turning out to be wonderful kids. They are "responsible" and "well-behaved" the president said, adding that he doesn't predict "complete mayhem" for their teenage years.

But, the president joked: "I should also point out that I have men with guns that surround them, often … ," adding that security helps make certain his daughters "never get in a car with a boy who had a beer. And that's a pretty good thing."

The president added that he might go so far as to invite a potential suitor to his Oval Office, knowing full well the intimidation factor. "Malia and Sasha, if you're watching this, I'm just jokin'," he added.

You can watch the complete video below:

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The Boston Bruins' riot-spawning, 4-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals on Wednesday night set several ratings records for NBC.

The game delivered a 5.7 rating and 10 percent household share, according Nielsen data, tying to 2003's Cup-ending game between the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and New Jersey Devils for the highest Game 7 overnight rating on record. (The Devils won that game 3-0.)

It was also a 14 percent jump over the most recent Stanley Cup Game 7--the Pittsburgh Penguins' win over the Detroit Red Wings in 2009. Full Story »

Anthony Weiner's press conference Thursday afternoon to announce his resignation  from the U.S. House of Representatives in the wake of a sexting scandal gave new meaning to the phrase "media circus."

Though brief, the announcement was an apt sequel to the similarly surreal presser Weiner gave in Manhattan on June 6. During that mid-day event, the New York congressman fought back tears for more than 40 minutes while confessing that he had carried on inappropriate electronic correspondence with six women--and then lied about his behavior in an effort to cover it up.

For today's press event, dozens of reporters filled a Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn senior center to cover the concluding mea culpa. And Twitter--the social-media platform that helped bring about Weiner's downfall--exploded with commentary from those watching online.

"Peyser! Peyser!" someone shouted as Weiner approached the podium, referring to Andrea Peyser, the acerbic New York Post columnist who had grilled Weiner at the previous event.

"Today, I am making my official resignation from Congress," Weiner said, bathed in the light of flashbulbs.

Weiner was berated by at least one heckler as he apologized to his constituents, family and wife, Hillary Clinton adviser Huma Abedin.

"Are you more than 7 inches?" Benjy Bronk, a writer for "The Howard Stern Show," shouted at Weiner.

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