JOSSIP REPORTS — With budgets already stretched thin — do you know how much Keith Olbermann costs? — cable networks like MSNBC find themselves covering one of the most expensive presidential election cycles ever. Those primaries went on for eternity, and the DNC and RNC will demand a few million more bucks. And then there's the damn presidential debates still coming!

All those costs explain why network head Phil Griffin has handed down travel restrictions — namely, the number of producers heading to Denver and St. Paul is nothing like it was just four years ago, we're told. Well-placed informants tell us many producers who went to the conventions in '04 aren't going to either the DNC or RNC this year, while the producers who did make the cut will have to pull double or triple duty, handling multiple talent at the same time.

Sounds pretty crappy, but cutbacks are the reality, right?

Well, it's the reality for everyone — except a one Andrea Mitchell.

The Cone of Silence correspondent is not only bringing her own producer with her to the conventions, but she's having 30 Rock pay for her personal intern to go along as well. She's insisting she needs her whole "team" with her for convention coverage.

Worse, staffers got to hear all about it Mitchell's privileges, since it came up on a MSNBC conference call yesterday. You can imagine how delighted veteran producers were to hear a summer intern gets to hit the political pow wows (along with 15,000 other media types) while they're stuck in the studio.

With Mitchell's aggressive lobbying more public than ever, her reputation at NBC continues to suffer. Already, reports one source, staffers are tired of her whining when one of her stories gets killed because of a breaking news event. And her refusal to admit mistakes has others miffed.

Snipes one insider: "Even David 'the Diva' Gregory has some limits."