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The Republican Party of Wisconsin has produced a striking web video highlighting the angry rhetoric coming from the pro-union protesters in Madison.

Among the signs that the video highlights are ones comparing Scott Walker, the state’s Republican governor, to Adolf Hitler and Hosni Mubarak, the recently deposed Egyptian president.

“Scott Walker = Adolf Hitler. Don’t let history repeat itself!” one sign reads. Another says “Midwest Mussolini.” A third accuses Mr. Walker of “raping” public union workers and says, “Rape is never a good solution.”

The web video contrasts the angry rhetoric with accusations from Democratic leaders and liberal activists that conservatives used inappropriate language during the debate over health care.

“Imagine just a few years ago had somebody walked around with images of Hitler,” says Robert Gibbs, the former White House press secretary. His comments are followed by images of Hitler being carried around by union protesters in Wisconsin.

Eugene Robinson, a liberal columnist for the Washington Post, is shown saying that “Violent political rhetoric and the threat of political violence in this country comes almost exclusively from the right.”

That is followed by a sign from the Wisconsin rallies showing Mr. Walker’s picture with a gunsight crosshair over it and the words: “Don’t retreat. Reload. Repeal Walker.”

Bill Maher, the liberal comedian, is shown telling host Jay Leno that “the right wing loves, the go-to rhetoric for them is ‘wouldn’t it be fun to kill the people we disagree with.’ Left wingers don’t talk that way.”

That is followed by signs that say “Death to Tyrants” and “One Down, One to Go. Dictators” — with the pictures of Mr. Walker and Mr. Mubarak next to each other.

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WARNING: Politicians trying to be comedians appear in this post.

Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, is in search of a day job as he contemplates whether he wants to challenge President Obama for the big corner office in the West Wing.

Meanwhile, it appears the 2012 presidential election will happen without Michael Steele at the helm of the Republican Party. Mr. Steele, who just got the boot as chairman of the Republican National Committee, has some extra time on his hands, too.

So what did both men do this week? What plenty of out-of-work Americans do when they need a break from the doldrums: they decided to try their hand at comedy.

Mr. Romney appeared Tuesday night on CBS’s “Late Night With David Letterman” show, presenting the Letterman Top 10 list in person, poking fun of himself and — more to the point — hawking his book, “No Apology.”

Standing awkwardly on the stage, but with perfectly coiffed hair, as usual, Mr. Romney offered the “Top 10 Things You Don’t Know about Mitt Romney.”

Among them: “I’m the guy in the picture that comes with your photo frame.”

Advisers to Mr. Romney insist he’s not a candidate for president — yet. But late-night comedy shows have become the new, electronic primary place to be. (Watch out, Iowa and New Hampshire. These appearances are now “First in the Nation.”)

Mr. Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (then a New York senator) and Senator John McCain of Arizona all appeared on multiple comedy shows during the 2008 campaign. And the genre dates even further. Former Vice President Al Gore once appeared on “Saturday Night Live” to deliver the State of the Union address he never got to do as president.

But Mr. Steele’s appearance with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” may have been the first time a national party chairman ever appeared with a puppet.

Mr. Stewart has repeatedly used a blue-skinned puppet as a stand-in for the real Mr. Steele in past shows. So on Tuesday’s appearance, with the real Mr. Steele sitting side-by-side next to the puppet, Mr. Stewart joked that he didn’t know which one to interview.

The puppet offered a solution: “Only one thing to do, Johnny Beefstew. Ask us questions only the real Michael Steele could answer!”

Mr. Steele played along, offering the pronunciation of the name of his replacement at the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, and joining in the puppet’s tendency to rhyme when Mr. Stewart finally picked him as the real thing.

“Whoa, whoa,” Mr. Steele said. “He picked me. So take a hike, Dick Van Dyke.”

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In The Times:
–John Harwood writes about how President Obama’s call last week for a country that “lives up to our children’s expectations” resonates on this Martin Luther King’s Birthday for black children, whose life prospects remain significantly diminished compared with white children’s.

–Monica Davey points out how new and re-elected governors of all political stripes are proposing strikingly similar remedies for their states’ budget woes.

–In The Times’s coverage of the Tucson shooting spree, Michael Luo, Sam Dolnick and Jennifer Medina report that Representative Gabrielle Giffords’s condition has been upgraded to serious from critical. Ms. Giffords’s husband, the astronaut Mark Kelly, spoke publicly for the first time at a funeral for another victim. Jenna Wortham looks at postings by the murder suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, on online gaming forums, while Mr. Dolnick profiles Suzanne Burros, an advocate for victims, who was first on the scene to help victims, witnesses and family members cope.

–When the House resumes legislative business on Tuesday, lawmakers are expected to dial down the heated political rhetoric, note Carl Hulse and David M. Herszenhorn. A vote this week on a Republican measure to repeal the Democrats’ health care overhaul might test their resolve.

–President Hu Jintao of China is expected in Washington this week for meetings with President Obama and American business groups aimed at mending ties between China and the United States. David E. Sanger and Michael Wines examine the weakened position of the Chinese leader and lay out the challenges for both sides to improving relations.

Around the Web:
–The Washington Post examines how black leaders have struggled to stem growing rates of poverty among black children and the bigger problems they face as states and the federal government look to trim spending and shrink gaping budget holes.

–The Post also reports that federal authorities plan to move Mr. Loughner’s trial to San Diego, out of concern over pretrial publicity and sensitivity in Arizona about the shootings.

–Add former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a Republican, to the camp of lawmakers opposed to raising the federal debt ceiling. Instead, he suggested to The Wall Street Journal (and on “Fox News Sunday”) that Congress buy time by passing legislation “that would put interest and debt payments ahead of other federal spending and allow the federal government to pay its creditors as tax revenue flows in.”

– CNN reports that Mr. Jintao plans to emphasize “strategic mutual trust” in his meetings with American government and business officials. Mr. Jintao also answered several written questions on monetary policy and diplomatic ties from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

–The Washington Post reports that the Afghan government is sending “overdue” tax bills to American contractors operating there in an effort to raise millions for the government and assert more control over the direction of the nation. Officials in both countries disagree over whether the practice is legal.

In Washington:
–The president and Mrs. Obama will use the holiday to participate in service projects in the Washington area. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Jill Biden will participate in activities in Wilmington, Del.

–Let them eat cake! Today is Mrs. Obama’s 47th birthday.

–Demonstrators plan to gather outside the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia to protest the detention of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is accused of leaking thousands of classified cables to the antisecrecy organization WikiLeaks. Mr. Manning is being held there as he awaits trial.

–R. Sargent Shriver, a former Peace Corps director and vice-presidential nominee, has been hospitalized outside Washington. According to The Associated Press, the hospital would not comment on Mr. Shriver’s condition, although he is known to have Alzheimer’s disease. Mr. Shriver is 95.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 17, 2011

An earlier version of this post misspelled R. Sargent Shriver’s given name as Sargeant.

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From Today’s Times:

The Giffords shooting has wrought political challenges for both parties and, in particular, for Representative John A. Boehner, the new speaker of the House, The Times’s David M. Herszenhorn explains. Highlighting just how sensitive the situation is, Mr. Boehner decided to replace a contentious health care debate scheduled for Wednesday with a bipartisan security briefing for lawmakers with the United States Capitol Police, the House sergeant-at-arms and the F.B.I.While both parties sought to project a nonpartisan civility in the wake of the rampage, a subtle round of jockeying for high ground began online and on cable television, The Times’s Jeff Zeleny and James Rutenberg write. Democrats and their allied liberal activists wondered aloud whether heated Republican and conservative attacks against Democrats and the government over the past two years had played a part in the incident.In the pipeline: About 15 business executives will sit down with Treasury officials in Washington on Friday as the White House takes its first steps toward tax reform, The Times’s John Harwood reports.Politics meets legal logistics: The Obama administration has unexpectedly come down on the side of pharmaceutical companies accused of overcharging public hospitals and clinics that care for the poor, barring them from suing drug companies to avoid an onslaught of law suits, The Times’s Robert Pear reports.

Around the Web:

The Tucson shooting has re-energized antigun lawmakers, like Representatives Carolyn McCarthy of New York and Bob Brady of Pennsylvania, who plans to introduce a bill that would ban symbols like the now-infamous cross hairs found on Sarah Palin’s map of candidates targeted for defeat in November’s midterm election.Ms. Giffords herself pointed out in an MSNBC interview last March that such a symbol could have consequences, though an aide to Ms. Palin now insists that the cross hairs were “surveyors symbols.”

Washington Happenings:

Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner have called for a moment of silence at the Capitol Building and the White House at 11 a.m.Mr. Obama meets with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France at the White House. Michele Obama will handle distaff diplomacy during a private lunch with her French counterpart, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 10, 2011

A previous version of this post misstated when Representative Giffords did an interview with MSNBC in which she warned about the consequences of political rhetoric; the interview was last March.

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Tim Pawlenty, the outgoing Republican governor of Minnesota, might be able to leave his post on time after all.

Tom Emmer, the Republican candidate to replace Mr. Pawlenty in the executive mansion, is reportedly planning on conceding the governor’s race to Democrat Mark Dayton later this morning.

Mr. Dayton has led Mr. Emmer by about 9,000 votes since election day, prompting Mr. Emmer to seek a recount. Had Mr. Emmer continued to contest the race into new year, it would have kept Mr. Pawlently in office longer than he had expected.

Instead, the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis reports that Mr. Emmer will bring the race to a close at 10:30 this morning, clearing the way for Mr. Pawlenty’s expected bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Stay tuned to The Caucus for updates.

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From Today’s Times:

– What exactly are America’s choices following North Korea’s shelling of a South Korean military installation? The Times’s David E. Sanger and Mark McDonald report that they aren’t terribly appealing: verbal retaliation and tightened sanctions haven’t done much to prevent attacks, while too strong a reaction could risk a broad conflict.

– Tuesday’s visit to Indiana by President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. sure felt like a campaign swing in many ways, The Times’s Helene Cooper reports. Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden toured a Chrysler plant in Kokomo, in what White House officials said was a trip to check in on a city hard hit by the economic downturn.

– The Times’s Matt Bai classifies the hullabaloo over airport security as the latest example of Americans’ skepticism that their government can get things done.

– Federal Reserve officials have debated whether the central bank’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, should hold news conferences every now and then to explain the Fed’s thinking, The Times’s Sewell Chan reports. (They decided not to.)

From Around the Web:

– A group aiming for the political center — “No Labels” — has gained backing from supporters of Michael R. Bloomberg, which The Wall Street Journal reports is raising questions about the New York mayor’s national ambitions.

– The Washington Post takes a deeper look at the plane crash in Alaska this past summer that claimed the lives of former Senator Ted Stevens and four others.

– More proof that serving on the House ethics panel can be a difficult task: Both the committee’s top Democrat, Zoe Lofgren, and its top Republican, Jo Bonner, are indicating they would rather not keep those positions, National Journal reports.

– Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, may be facing a narrow path to re-election should he choose to run for another term in 2012, Politico finds.

Washington Daybook:

– Mr. Obama is set to break out his presidential pardoning powers on Wednesday — for a pair of turkeys. In what has become an annual tradition, the president is scheduled to pardon a turkey named Apple, as well as an alternate named Cider.

– The Census Bureau is expected to release residential sales figures for October, while the Bureau of Economic Analysis is scheduled to release data on personal income.

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