Her Reign In Maine Has Really Left a Stain

From HILL REPORTER:

Whenever there is a close controversial vote, democrats normally hold out hope that Maine senator, Susan Collins, will vote with them. […] She broke liberal hearts, however, when she voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in October of 2018.

That Kavanaugh vote, while it pleased the GOP, may have done the senator more harm than good. According to a new poll from Critical Insights, Collins’ Maine approval rating has dipped 17 points since last spring.

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Romney’s Rand Gesture

Mittsie’s campaign was wilting on the vine, and they decided to wake things up with a bold choice to liven things up.

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The End of an Error

From Steve Kornacki at Salon:

The White House campaign ruse ends. If only the myth would too

There are, believe it or not, a few people who seem genuinely surprised by Sarah Palin’s announcement last night that she won’t run for president in 2012.

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Red Meat & the Meathead

From TIME Swampland:

Michele Bachmann is ambling through the aisles of a cramped meat locker in an industrial section of Des Moines. Massive sides of beef, weighing up to 950 lbs., hang from hooks near the ceiling and droplets of blood pool on the frigid floor. You can see your breath. Bundled in a blue coat, a string of pearls around her neck glittering in the low light, Bachmann trades small talk and gamely slices slabs of rib eye in the cutting room. “My grandfather owned a meat market in Iowa,” she tells the manager of the family-owned meatpacking plant, which has operated since 1869 and employs six workers. It is a perfectly scripted set piece for Bachmann, whose two-day swing through the Hawkeye State this week is designed to accentuate her blue-collar, Midwestern bona fides, her connection to Iowans and her commitment to the retail politicking it takes to win the state’s first-in-the-nation caucus this winter. When you want to win Iowa, this is the type of place you spend a drizzly Tuesday morning.

And all blue-collar Midwestern girls wear open-toed strappy high heels in cold and bloody meat lockers.

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Coburnt

From THINK PROGRESS ECONOMY:

Until late this afternoon, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) was single-handedly blocking the transportation bill that would temporarily reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration, keep 80,000 people in their jobs, and avoid another costly shutdown like the one that occurred in August. Coburn had said he was blocking the bill due to the “indefensible threat to public safety” caused by a provision in the bill meant to increase trees and bike paths alongside roadways.

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Kick Rick

From GULF TIMES:

Republican front-runner Rick Perry came under heavy fire on Social Security, jobs and his record in Texas in a heated US presidential debate on Monday as rivals tried to halt the governor’s momentum.

…snip…

Perry’s rivals questioned his claims about Texas job creation, his stance on illegal immigrants and an executive order he gave as governor, which he admitted was a mistake, that young girls be vaccinated for a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

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Debate of Duh Nation

From POLITICO:

Rick Perry battled a withering barrage of attacks in his first debate as a presidential candidate Wednesday night, at times stumbling in the face of harsh criticism – and difficult questioning – at the POLITICO/NBC debate.

But Perry proved himself to be an aggressive, often caustic debater, waiting only a few moments to go on the attack against his top rival, Mitt Romney, for his jobs record as governor of Massachusetts.

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Inside the Wapping Paper

From THE INDEPENDENT:

David Cameron was given a personal guarantee by Rupert Murdoch that Andy Coulson was safe to take on as his Downing Street press chief, The Independent on Sunday learnt yesterday, as the fallout from the News of the World phone-hacking scandal threatened to escalate into all-out war between the UK’s two most powerful men.

The Prime Minister had already cooled relations with the 80-year-old press baron on Friday by saying that his son, James Murdoch, has “questions to answer” over News International’s handling of the scandal. The Battle of Wapping 2011 will be intensified by the revelation that Mr Cameron was told by Mr Murdoch twice that, despite fears over Mr Coulson’s connection to the phone-hacking scandal, there was no problem with the former editor.

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