With Ron Elving on furlough this week, what better person to replace him for our "It's All Politics" podcast than that wacky, practical jokester — NPR's Linda Wertheimer.

And what a week it was! We focus on what's going on in Massachusetts to succeed Ted Kennedy, the new Kennedy memoir, what's at stake for President Obama's address to a joint meeting of Congress next week, the fallout to the Bob McDonnell 1989 thesis in Virginia, the Eliot Spitzer comeback rumor and, of course, how America will be changed forever now that Jim Traficant is out of prison.

And you can hear it all here:

Audio is not available

Credits (as it were) —
Nonstop talkers: Ron Elving and Ken Rudin
Producer: Evie Stone
Editor: Cathy Shaw

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Wanna solve this week's ScuttleButton puzzle? It's coming momentarily!

Tags: Heard On NPR