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Last week, I said that Stephen Colbert was the one candidate I could support to replace reting wingnut South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint. It seems the voters there agree: Colbert is top pick to replace DeMint:

Talk-show host Stephen Colbert is South Carolina voters' preferred candidate to replace Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), according to a new poll by the Democratic Public Policy Polling.

The Comedy Central host, who's openly lobbied for the seat, leads a field where the rest of the names are Republicans: 20 percent of voters want South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) to appoint him to DeMint's seat when the senator resigns from Congress.

Haley has publicly ruled him out, however, because he didn't know the official state drink is milk.

"Stephen, thank you for your interest in South Carolina's U.S. Senate seat and for the thousands of tweets you and your fans sent me," she wrote on her Facebook page on Friday. "But you forget one thing, my friend. You didn't know our state drink. Big, big mistake." Read on...

UPDATE: To no one's surprise, Colbert responded to the Governor's rejection on his show this Monday evening and Stephen and his Super PAC money are determined not to give up. After some ribbing about Haley not knowing that South Carolina's state amphibian is the spotted salamander, Colbert urged his viewers to continue to tweet Haley with the hashtag #spottedsalamander and ask her to name him as DeMint's replacement.

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Why does Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) hate Christmas?

The Arizona senator slammed President Barack Obama on Thursday for buying Christmas gifts for his daughters instead of meeting with the House Republicans who are refusing to pass a payroll tax cut extension.

"The four previous presidents I served under, including President Clinton, would be calling them over to the White House and sitting down with them and looking them in the eye and saying, 'Look, we need to fix this,'" McCain told CNN's Ali Velshi.

"The Republicans are losing this fight. We need to get back on track. There is no doubt about that," the senator admitted. "But I think it requires some presidential leadership as well as a little bit of bipartisanship."

"In times like the past, in the past, four presidents that I served under, they have exerted a lot more leadership than going shopping."

A two-month extension of the payroll tax cut was passed with the bipartisan approval of 89 senators -- something that is almost unheard of on serious legislation -- but House Republicans are demanding that cut be extended for a year. Americans' taxes will automatically go up if a bill is not signed in the next week.

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I recorded the entire exchange not so you'd have to sit through the same tired talking points, but so you could see Russ Feingold absolutely eviscerate Ron Johnson's claim that the Affordable Care Act is a disaster that takes away his "freedom". Feingold shows every Democrat how to do it right, while smiling all the way through it. If there was a winning moment, this was it.

At about 2:38 in the video:

FEINGOLD: He's called it one of the greatest invasions of his freedom that he's ever known. Does it really invade his freedom to make sure over a million Wisconsinites aren't denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition? Does it really hurt his freedom that people running into limits on lifetime coverage no longer can be cut off their insurance? Does it really hurt his freedom that kids under 26 now can be covered under their parents' policies? I wonder if it bothers him that the bill provides health care tax credits to over 80,000 small businesses in Wisconsin? He'd even repeal that. He would take that away from all Wisconsin small businesses that are going to get benefit from that. Does it really hurt his freedom that finally older people who can't afford their prescription drugs will have some coverage and some funds to cover that donut hole, that gap in coverage in Medicare Part D?

These are good things. He would wipe them all out and would put the insurance industry back in control and that is absolutely against what the people of Wisconsin want.

July 23, 2009 C-SPAN

Part 1

Part 2

From The Arizona Guardian:

Arizona state Senator Sylvia Allen (R) voices support for opening up uranium mining in the state. Sen Allen responds to statements by environmentalists by assuring them that the "Earth is 6,000 years old..." Twice.

February 03, 2009 C-SPAN

Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer and other members talked about their principles for climate change legislation. They focused on ways in which the proposed legislative initiatives would improve the economy. They also answered questions from reporters. Speakers include Senators, Whitehouse, Boxer, Sanders, Klobuchar and more. See more CSPANJunkie videos here.

January 30, 2009 C-SPAN

Heather: I just wanted to add that Clair McCaskill is my Senator, and I had the chance to meet her once. She is as spunky in person as she is in this video. I am very glad to have her as my Senator as opposed to Jim Talent a.k.a. Bush rubber-stamper who decided that whatever the GOP and Bush did while he served his term in office was fine by him and hey... who needs Congressional oversight? What a silly thing to expect of someone. Even though I don't agree with everything Clair McCaskill has done while in office I think she's been a breath of fresh air for MO.

I applaud her for speaking up about these fat cats sucking off of the tax payers teet. The GOP always loooves welfare for corporations. For poor people...not so much. I agree with her that if you're going to take tax payers' money there should be some limits as to how you benefit from that.

January 29, 2009 C-SPAN Washington Journal

January 16, 2009 C-SPAN

January 13, 2009 C-SPAN

Republican Senator David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, on Tuesday introduced a measure to disapprove the release of the second half of the $700 billion financial bailout package, his aide said on Tuesday.

The massive rescue program was approved last October to bolster the financial industry as it reeled under the stress of bad mortgage debts and several major institutions were threatened with collapse.