On CNBC this morning, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist claimed that the current financial crisis facing America is rooted in the fact that Democrats took control of the House and Senate in 2006. “The economy’s in the present state because when the Democrats took the House and Senate in 2006, you knew that those tax increases were going to come in 2010,” said Norquist.

According to Norquist, the stock market collapsed because “we’re in the middle of responding” to tax increases that haven’t actually happened yet:

NORQUIST: Well, the economy’s in the present state because when the Democrats took the House and Senate in 2006, you knew that those tax increases were going to come in 2010. The stock market began to collapse as soon as you recognized that those old tax rates were coming back. So, we’re in the middle of responding to those tax increases.

David Sirota, who was on the CNBC show as well, notes that Norquist’s absurd argument was laughed at and immediately rejected by the host and the other guests on the show. The Financial Times’ Chrystia Freeland pointed out that “the stock market is collapsing because the U.S. and global financial system is in crisis.” Watch it:

Though economists might disagree over what the exact causes of the financial crisis are, Norquist’s assertion is laughable. Indeed, if he wants to find a real culprit, he should look at the Bush administration’s utter failure to supervise our mortgage, lending and financial markets properly while also ignoring the ailing U.S. housing market.

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Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has agreed to stay on under President-elect Obama “for at least the first year.” Obama will make the announcement official next week when he introduces his national security team. Politico’s Mike Allen reports:

The selection of a member of President Bush’s inner circle allows Obama to deliver on his promise of a bipartisan Cabinet, even though Gates has an intelligence background and has not been an active Republican.

The appointment has substantial advantages for Obama, who now can keep his pledge of drawing down troops in Iraq with the aid of an architect of the Bush administration’s successful troop “surge” strategy. The presence of Gates also will help finesse Obama’s relationship with Gen. David Petraeus, the former U.S. commander in Iraq and now the head of the U.S. Central Command, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan.

Today on his radio show, conservative talker and future Fox News personality Glenn Beck suggested that states should “secede” from the union to protest the recent string of Wall Street bailouts:

BECK: So the question is, do states have the right to secede anymore? Because it was a compact. It’s not perpetual. In fact, in the Declaration of Independence it says it is our right, it is our responsibility to get away from a government who doesn’t listen to us any more.

Do you even have a right to do that as a state any more? Do you have the right to say, “You know what, you guys are going down a path that I don’t even agree with”? Is that even possible?

Listen here:

Apparently, Beck was serious when he previously declared, “This is America: love it or leave it!” We just didn’t realize he was going to take part of the country with him when he left.

U.S. News reports that Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Michael Mullen and his wife are known “for welcoming friends and associates during back-to-back parties at their decked-out Foggy Bottom digs.” For example, last year featured musician Kid Rock “enjoying heavy hors d’oeuvres” and expensive beverages. This year, however, the Mullens are canceling their party. According to the invite, “in these trying financial times they have decided to forego their their holiday reception“: