• The Rude Pundit calls in at 9:30am ET / 6:30am PT to talk about the aftermath of last week’s elections

• Eric Boehlert of Media Matters for America calls in at 10am ET / 7am PT to talk about the press’ role in last week’s GOP wins

• Voice Deity Jim Ward joins us in the Los Angeles Bureau at 11am ET / 8am PT for Maximum Mookage Mondays

• The decision to nearly double the number of American advisers deployed to Iraq “signals a new phase” in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, or ISIL), President Obama said Sunday, but U.S. troops will still stay out of combat operations.

• Putting a bright face on the future of U.S. ties with China, President Obama announced Monday in Beijing that the two countries would start granting visas to each other’s citizens valid for up to 10 years. Yet thorny issues like human rights and trade lurked just under the surface.

• Days after the Dems’ defeat in the midterm elections, President Obama said Sunday that he takes responsibility for his party’s poor performance at the polls. “Whenever — as the head of the party — it doesn’t do well, I’ve got to take responsibility for it,” Obama said on CBS’ “Face The Nation” yesterday.

• The coldest air of the season is set to reach into some 42 states this week as an Arctic blast drops temperatures from the Canadian border down to the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said.