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Flap’s Links and Comments for May 9th on 14:43

These are my links for May 9th from 14:43 to 14:50:

  • U.S. Senate 2012: Is Olympia Snowe feeling the heat? – Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe has often been the Democrats’ favorite Republican — the first moderate on board when Democrats needed someone in the GOP to jump ship.But those days may be over as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Snowe have had an increasingly nasty falling out that could threaten future deals in the Senate.

    It started in 2009, when Snowe lamented being shut out of Democratic negotiations over the health care bill, continued as Reid bashed her in a 2010 magazine interview and culminated in recent weeks when the two engaged in a rare public spat on the Senate floor.

    The two sparred over a noncontroversial small-business reauthorization bill, with Reid accusing Snowe of “killing” the bill and Snowe saying Reid reneged on a promise to bring up her amendment.

    Reid’s frustration with Snowe might be about more than just a small-business bill.

    Snowe has been voting far more along Republican party lines as she faces the possibility of a tea party challenger in her 2012 Republican primary, making her a much less willing partner for Democrats in search of a Republican deal maker. Democrats also are targeting her seat in 2012, so Reid has less incentive to give her bipartisan cover.

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    Well, Senator Snowe does feel the Tea Party heat but also knows Harry Reid is a snake and will likely not be majority leader come 2013.

    Sooooo, like any POL, she votes her conscious….

  • President 2012 and the Republican rescue fantasy – Talk to enough people around this key primary state and you’ll learn two lessons, over and over again. One is that there is absolutely, positively no unity among Republicans about any presidential candidate or potential candidate; there’s no such thing as a frontrunner. The other is that in the back of their minds, many Republicans are hoping that somewhere, somehow, a superhero candidate will swoop down out of the sky and rescue them from their current lackluster presidential field. They know it’s a fantasy, but they still hope.It’s not just dissatisfaction with the field — Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, and Gary Johnson — that took part in the first GOP debate on Thursday night. Even if the other would-be candidates — Mike Huckabee , Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Mitch Daniels, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, and Donald Trump — had all been onstage with the others Thursday, there still would have been plenty of unhappiness among South Carolina’s political professionals, activists, and ordinary people who just follow politics. Seeing each candidate as flawed, they focus on the unattainables — Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio — who they believe might bring a fresh face and new hope to the GOP.

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    Read it all.

    If Mike Huckabee runs, he will win Iowa and South Carolina. Mitt Romney will have to rely upon New Hampshire, Nevada and then Florida.

    The race between the two may go on for some time unless Mitch Daniels runs. Then, the race will be anyone’s guess, especially since the Bush faction of the GOP will back Daniels.

    I figure there will be a deal with 2 of those three making up the ticket in some form or the other.

    Jon Huntsman is running for 2016.

    The rest are just noise.