White House Budget Director Peter Orszag released a statement Wednesday about the birth of a daughter out-of-wedlock.

The mother of Tatiana Zoe is Orszag's former girlfriend, Claire Milonas. She gave birth on Nov. 17, months after she and Orszag broke off their relationship.

Orszag has since become engaged to ABC News reporter Bianna Golodryga (pictured here, with Orszag), whom he met in April at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington. 

The joint statement from Orszag and Milonas said the two were in a committed relationship until the spring of 2009.

“In November, Claire gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Although we are no longer together, we are both thrilled she is happy and healthy, and we would hope that everyone will respect her privacy,” the statement read.

The statement was released in response to questions about the child from The New York Post, which first reported on the story.

Milonas is the daughter of Greek shipping magnate Spiros Milonas. She is the founder of Ionian Ventures, a venture capital firm in New York.

Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore on Thursday basked in Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) decision to retire.

After targeting him in his latest documentary, "Capitalism: A Love Story," Moore has called on Dodd — who officially announced his retirement Wednesday — to step down.

Splashed across Moore's website is a banner that reads, "There Was No Other Decision to Make: Four months after our request for him to retire, Senator Christopher Dodd agrees."

Moore claimed that, in order for Democrats to keep the longtime senator's seat, Dodd had to step down because of his role in the Countrywide Financial mortgage scandal.

In his 2009 release "Capitalism," Moore paints Dodd as an elite politician too friendly with the banking industry, making him unfit for his job as chairman on the Senate Banking Committee. The filmmaker highlights a "VIP" mortgage Dodd received under Countrywide's illicit "Friends of Angelo" program.

Though the Senate Ethics Committee cleared Dodd of wrongdoing, Moore still called for his ouster.

After it was revealed that Dodd received a "VIP" mortgage loan, his approval ratings plummeted and he appeared to be in danger of losing his seat to a Republican this year.

"Once exposed, Dodd sank in the polls. Had he run again, the Repubs would have picked up a Senate seat from CT. Now the Dems have a chance," Moore wrote on Twitter Wednesday. "Dodd was the Chair of the Sen Banking Com. He & his com over the yrs changed laws 2 make it easy for Countrywide & banks to screw people."

On his website, Moore links to two television interviews calling on the Democratic Party to dump Dodd.

"The Democratic Party needs to tell him, 'You can't run for reelection,' " Moore told NBC's Chis Matthews in September.

After Dodd announced his retirement, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) announced he would run for Dodd's seat.

There are lots of funny topics on the social networking site Twitter, but on Wednesday it seemed like there was only one: "Tea party pick up lines."

Early in the day, Twitter users began submitting humorous, flirtatious queries that played on issues championed by the politically conservative tea party movement, such as lower taxes, smaller government, and gun control.

Over the next 24 hours, thousands more people posted their own political pick up lines, and by midnight on Wednesday Twitter, which gets more than 10 million visitors a month, had listed the hash tag "#TeaPartyPickUpLines" among its top five most popular topics.

The majority of the quips were funny and political, but not everyone got the joke: sprinkled throughout were dozens of tweets about drinking tea.

Here are some of the most popular pick up lines:

1. "Don't worry, I'm too big to fail"

2. "The real reason I'm against tax increases? So I can spend all my money on you girl.." [sic]

3. "Pull over here. We can make out and watch Russia"

4. "That protest sine makes you look so secksy" [sic]

And lastly, a romantic re-write of Rep. Joe Wilson's (R-S.C.) infamous utterance during President Barack Obama's joint address to Congress last year:

5. "YOU LIE on top of me" [sic]

There's an old Chinese proverb that says the enemy of your enemy is your friend.

In college football, that means you root for the opponent of your rival, which is just what White House press secretary Robert Gibbs is doing.

Gibbs said Wednesday that he's rooting for the University of Texas Longhorns to beat University of Alabama's Crimson Tide in Thursday's national championship Rose Bowl game. But it's not because he's a Texas fan.

Gibbs is a native of Auburn, Ala., and his home team is the Auburn University Tigers, longtime rivals of the Crimson Tide.  "I will e-mail all my friends in Alabama and tell them good luck," he told reporters, "and I will root as hard as one possibly can for Texas."

Gibbs and his fellow Auburn fans had their big bowl game last month, when the Tigers beat Northwestern University's Wildcats, who hail from President Barack Obama's hometown of Chicago, Ill., in the Outback Bowl, 38-35.

Gibbs majored in political science at North Carolina State, where he played goalie on the soccer team for two years. 

H/T: Bob Cusack

FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker isn’t letting a pre-Christmas injury keep her from jetting off to the biggest technology trade show this week.

Nor is it keeping her from attending the biggest college football game of the year.

While walking her dog during the December snow storm, Baker slipped on some ice and fractured her left wrist so badly that she needed surgery to repair it. Wearing a cast that stretches above her elbow, she still managed to get to her family’s home in Houston for the holidays. Relatives, including her father-in-law James Baker (former White House chief of staff and Secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush), took turns helping her get by, even cutting food for her, she light-heartedly told Hillicon Valley this week.

The injury may have dampened her holiday plans, but it’s not getting in her way this week. Tomorrow she’ll be in the stadium at college football's national championship game, rooting for the Texas Longhorns, of course.

She’s even sporting orange nail polish to show her team spirit.

Baker will then jet off to Las Vegas on Friday and plans to take a tour of the exhibition floor that afternoon. She will speak on a panel discussion Saturday afternoon with yours truly before heading back to Washington.

Hopefully her staff can help her haul luggage through the airport.

Coastal Contacts announced today that the Sarah Palin 8001 eyeglasses have been the top selling rimless glasses for the past year.

Coastal Contacts is the world's largest online retailer of contact lenses and eyeglasses, Global Newswire reported.
 
Palin’s original frames were made by Kazuo Kawasaki, a Japanese designer.

Former Vice President Al Gore believes the planet is heating up, but in one Alaska town, he's getting a very frosty reception.

A two-ton ice sculpture of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner's head was erected in front of a Fairbanks liquor store on Tuesday, with a pipe connecting Gore's mouth to the exhaust pipe of a pick-up truck. When the truck's engine is running, Gore appears to be spewing "hot air."

Adding to the comedic effect is a soundtrack of Gore talking about environmental issues, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports.

The statue was paid for by two Fairbanks businessmen who disagree with Gore's views on the topic of climate change. A similar sculpture was displayed last year, drawing more than 1.7 million hits to a web site with photos and commentary about the statue.

This year is the first time the sculpture has spewed smoke.

The White House is not happy with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals using First Lady Michelle Obama’s image in their new ads.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the new campaign: “Fur-free and fabulous” did not have the right to use Obama’s picture.

While Obama’s press secretary has said that the first lady does not wear fur, she is not able to make such an endorsement. PETA put the First Lady on the ads because of a previous White House confirmation that Obama is not a fur-wearer.

The ad has Obama appearing with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, country singer Carrie Underwood and Tyra Banks and appears on the DC Metro and in magazines. Winfrey was named PETA’s “Person of the Year” in 2008. She earned the honor for her efforts to educate against puppy mills.

Michelle Obama is an aunt.

Her new nephew, Austin, was born Monday and is he son of Obama’s older brother Craig Robinson and his wife Kelly. MSNBC reported that Austin weighed in at 7 pounds, 5 ounces.

Robinson, who has two children from a previous parriage, is the head coach of the Oregon State University basketball team.