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Well, Senator DeMint is heading to Iowa.

News that South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint will travel to Iowa on March 26 to address a conservative forum organized by Rep. Steve King is sparking another round of chatter that DeMint might launch a dark horse bid for the White House in 2012.

The Republican gadfly has been adamant in denying such intentions for more than a year – just Wednesday, he gave CNN’s Wolf Blitzer a flat “No” when asked if he plans to seek his party’s presidential nomination.

But the ground may be shifting in DeMint-world, and several of his closest advisers and political confidantes are now telling CNN that he is at least open to a presidential bid if a suitably conservative candidate fails to emerge from the early and wide-open GOP field.

“I think that you can read into it that he sees he has a role in the process and he hasn’t completely shut the door,” said one DeMint adviser asked about the Iowa foray.

DeMint currently sees his role in the 2012 process, the adviser said, as “setting the bar high” for the presidential contenders when it comes to advocating for a small government agenda.

“He hasn’t completely shut the door on running, and if there is a massive void in the group of candidates, who knows what could happen?,” said the adviser, who was quick to caution that there is only a five percent chance the senator will run.

So, what game is Jim DeMint playing here? Kingmaker?

Perhaps

He would certainly be able to garner votes in the early South Carolina Presidential primary as a “favorite son.” Which would then drive the race for the GOP nomination to later in the primary season – past Florida and Super Tuesday.

Of course, this is all dependent upon whether Mike Huckabee, Mike Pence and/or Sarah Palin run.

It is a fun day today – first, John Huntsman and then DeMint.

Looks like Mitt Romney is getting NO respect.

Or is the former Utah Governor just leaning towards the GOP nomination?

U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman (R) appears to be leaning toward a run for president in 2012 and a team of political operatives and fundraisers have begun informal talks and outreach to ensure he could rapidly ramp up if he decides to run.

Talk of a Huntsman presidential bid has been all the rage of late — ever since a Newsweek article earlier this month made clear he was seriously considering the possibility.

During Chinese President Hu Jintao’s official state visit last week, President Obama was even asked by reporters about the prospect of Huntsman, a former Utah governor, challenging him in 2012.

“I couldn’t be happier with the ambassador’s service, and I’m sure he will be very successful in whatever endeavors he chooses in the future,” said Obama. “And I’m sure that him having worked so well for me will be a great asset in any Republican primary.”

Huntsman, for his part, has been mum about the possibility of a national bid but the breadth of the team that has formed to prepare for just such an eventuality suggests he is quite serious.

But, Chris Cizzilla goes on to name Huntsman’s inner circle of advisors or kitchen cabinet, so to speak.

If John Huntsman wants in the GOP Presidential race, the water is fine.

But, he better get a move on to increase his name identification and determine how he will beat another fellow Mormon Mitt Romney.

Remember the flap and the Saul Alinsky style street protest which I mentioned yesterday?

This morning it has been picked up by Politico.

This weekend, for the eighth straight year, the billionaire Koch brothers will convene a meeting of roughly 200 wealthy businessmen, Republican politicians and conservative activists for a semi-annual conference to raise millions of dollars for the institutions that form the intellectual foundation – and, increasingly, the leading political edge – of the conservative movement.

In the past, the meetings have drawn an A-list of participants – politicians like Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, leading free-market thinkers including American Enterprise Institute president Arthur Brooks, talkers Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and even Supreme Court justices – to mingle with the wealthy donors who comprise the bulk of the invitees. The meetings adjourned after soliciting pledges of support from the donors – sometimes totaling as much as $50 million – to non-profit groups favored by the Kochs.

For the most part, the meetings, which are closed to the public and reporters, have attracted little attention outside conservative circles. But very different circumstances surround the Koch conference set to begin Saturday at an exclusive resort outside Palm Springs, Calif.

The Koch brothers – Charles and David – have come under intense scrutiny recently for their role in helping start and fund some of the deepest-pocketed groups involved in organizing the tea party movement such as Americans for Prosperity, and for steering cash towards efforts to target President Barack Obama, his healthcare overhaul, and congressional Democrats in the run-up to the 2010 election.

Liberal critics have launched a campaign to highlight what they say is the systematic way in which the Kochs use their political giving to advance a conservative economic and regulatory agenda designed to further the interests of their oil, chemical and manufacturing empire.

So, who is behind the protest of this conference? The usual LEFT organizations but let’s take a close look.

1. Common Cause -  sponsoring organization of the Uncloak the Kochs – The Billionaires Causcus and its Threat to Our Democracy.

2. California Labor Federation

3. Courage Campaign

4. California Nurses Association

5. Code Pink

6. ACLU

7. Sierra Club

8. Greenpeace

9. AFSCME

10. MoveOn

There are others, but you get the point – The FAR LEFT and BIG LABOR.

What a shock.

And, Big Labor is helping organize the turnout and bus rides down to the Palm Springs area to protest on the streets. This is how they roll.

But, what is there to protest? Politics? Fundraising? Political Activism? Hobnobbing with the rich and famous?

While the Koch conferences have taken on an undeniably political edge – a June summit featured sessions on voter mobilization efforts for the 2010 midterms as well as solicitations for an ad campaign attacking Democratic lawmakers – those who have attended say the meetings say the critics have it all wrong.

“The main goal of the seminars appeared to me to be education on the challenges that face the American system of free enterprise and democracy, and what people can do about them,” said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a conservative Republican who has attended at least seven of the meetings.

McDonnell, who is not attending this weekend’s conference, said he was introduced to the gatherings by “free market friends up in Northern Virginia, some in the Koch enterprises institution,” and he cast the conferences as playing an important role in the political process.

“Groups on the right, left and in the middle get together all over this great country to exercise their first amendment rights to talk about these issues – some of them are public. Some of them are closed meetings,” he said. “So, to the degree that some on the left may be trying to attack these Koch seminars is really ridiculous.”

Really ridiculous is correct. This is good government in action and the LEFT hypocritically runs the same type conferences and accepts money from large donors like George Soros – hello!

This entire protest is a Saul Alinsky type of exercise to ridicule/humiliate/demonize the RIGHT for the benefit of the LEFT – that is all.

I don’t think it will work.

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The LEFT ala Saul Alinsky Protest Koch Brothers Conference

The Gallup Poll have the good news for the GOP.

Americans’ opinions of the Republican Party have improved to the point where now more have a favorable than unfavorable opinion of the party. The last time more Americans viewed the GOP more positively than negatively was in 2005

For the early part of the 2000s, Americans had a net-positive image of the Republican Party. That changed in 2005, as Americans soured on the Bush administration over the ongoing Iraq war, the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and rising gas prices, among other issues. After the 2006 midterm elections, which saw Americans remove the Republicans as the majority party in Congress, the Republicans’ ratings were 35% favorable and 58% unfavorable.

The Republican Party’s image remained negative over the next two years as the economy worsened, except for a 47%-47% reading after the party’s well-received national convention in 2008, which ended days before the financial crisis intensified. Just after Americans elected Barack Obama to replace Bush later that year, the Republicans’ net-favorable score was -27 (34% favorable, 61% unfavorable) — the worst Gallup has measured in this trend dating to 1992

Not having George W. Bush around with an unpopular Iraq War will help but the Republicans in the House are on probation. If they do not perform and resort to politics as usual, the Tea Party will vote them out of office.

The LEFT usually regards the U.S. Constitution as that which was written by OLD WHITE GUYS who considered African-Americans as only 3/5′ths of a person slaves. Knowing that by playing the RACE CARD keeps a captive electoral base of support, this is cynical at best.

But, it works.

The Constitution is a living, breathing document and no matter who tries to kill it, it will survive – or the United States will be NO more.

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