Oy! Republican Shenanigans!

First off, we have Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) who is threatening to resign from the Senate if the Republican Party doesn't lay off and stop asking him to not run in 2010. The situation in Kentucky is turning into one of the juiciest things heating up, no? Well, that and the whole Minnesota Senator thing which, at this point, I think we're all just over.

From the Courier-Journal (out of Louisville):

Already in conflict with his party’s leaders, Sen. Jim Bunning has reportedly said privately that if he is hindered in raising money for his re-election campaign he is ready with a response that would be politically devastating for Senate Republicans: his resignation.

The Kentucky Republican suggested that possible scenario at a campaign fundraiser for him on Capitol Hill earlier this week, according to three sources who asked not to be identified because of the politically sensitive nature of Bunning’s remarks.

The implication, they said, was that Bunning would allow Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, to appoint his replacement — a move that could give Democrats the 60 votes they need to block Republican filibusters in the Senate.

“I would get the last laugh. Don’t forget Kentucky has a Democrat governor,” one of the sources quoted Bunning as saying.

“The only logical extension of that comment is, ‘(Make me mad) … enough and I’ll resign, and then you’ve got 60 Democrats,’ ” said another source who was present at the event.

This is funny because I was just reading about the 17th Amendment in re Roland Burris and was amused by the whole process of gubernatorial appointments to the US Senate for open seats. Anyways, Bunning is insane, but brilliant... which makes him dangerous.

For the moment, he's the Republican Blagojevich.

Yea, and, apparently, Sarah Palin remains at the head of the Republican Party Presidential wanna-be's for 2012. Palin has 29% support, with Huckabee just 3 points behind, and Romney 5 points behind MH. I just have this to say about polling this far out: even a year and a half out, we were all pretty sure Hillary Clinton was going to be the Democratic nominee, and Giuliani the Republican, right? Right. Worthless, but it tells us about the usefulness of polls at this point.

And I really should watch Jindal's speech, shouldn't I? The exorcist either was brilliant or a waste of everyone's time.

Which is not that dissimilar to most people's feelings on Sarah Palin.

Funny -- I think this is the first time I've ever written about Bobby Jindal. Weird. (Thanks to Electoral-Vote.com for the updates.)