Primary Evening News Reads: South Carolina, New Hampshire, Indiana and Texas

Just a few quick links for you tonight…Dakinikat will have the live blog going around 7pm as we wait and see which clown takes New Hampshire.

News is that in another state, Colbert is actually out polling Huntsman.

Public Policy Polling, spurred on by Stephen Colbert‘s efforts to sponsor the South Carolina primary, as well as attempts to get on the ballot and get behind a referendum about, “whether corporations are people or only people are people,” announced on Tuesday the results of polls it conducted with Colbert’s name and referendum in the mix.

“Our team at PPP,” their release reads, “decided if he couldn’t get all that stuff on the actual ballot, we could at least poll it for him.”

So PPP rounded up 1,112 likely Republican primary voters, and found that Colbert is polling at 5%, putting him in sixth place, ahead of Jon Huntsman (4%).

More surprisingly, however, is that Colbert only has a 17% favorability rating, with 41% finding him “unfavorable,” and 42% “not sure.” The poll, conducted between Jan. 5 and Jan. 7, did turn up some good news for the Comedy Central host: 67% of those responding believe that “only people are people” (while 33% believe “corporations are people”).

I don’t know about you, but I would vote for Colbert any day! Al Sharpton is having his own twisted choice of candidate…

MSNBC’s Al Sharpton takes a rather unique approach to finding his ideal candidate, borrowing a page from none other than Dr. Frankenstein. Here are the bits and pieces he’d take from several of the GOP candidates (Notably absent? Huntsman’s everything.) to form his version of the ideal Republican presidential candidate:

1.Will Mitt Romney’s “Presidential Appearance and Persona”

“He looks presidential, until he starts talking,” said Sharpton. “If he didn’t say anything, we’d almost be impressed.” Al Sharpton is cold blooded, you guys.

2. Newt Gingrich’s “Pseudo-Intellect and Glibness”

“Newt sounds smart. He sounds smarter than I think he is.” You know what? Sharpton is going to wake up with a horse’s head in his bed tomorrow. A My Little Pony head covered in Romney stickers, most likely.

3. Rick Santorum’s Passion

“He’s very passionate. He seems like a man of purpose. A man on a mission.” A man with a vest.

And, finally…

4. Nothing from Rick Perry

“I can’t think of anything I’d take from Rick Perry”

Romney’s Persona? Are you kidding me…even a dead Frankenstein has more persona this Mittens!

Indiana had a lickety split hearing today, all of 6 minutes…House Committee passage of Indiana Right-to-Work law.

UPDATE: And here’s the latest. Democrats have walked out again in protest, denying Republicans a quorum.

Republicans in Indiana wasted no time. After House Democrats returned to work yesterday, the GOP immediately scheduled a Labor Committee vote on the divisive right-to-work bill. Mary Beth Schneider reported on the swift passage in committee:

House Republicans today voted 8-5 on party lines to send the so-called “right to work” bill to the full House, refusing to allow any debates or any amendments.

House Democrats, who unanimously voted against the bill, said they were outraged by the hearing that lasted about six minutes. One, Rep. John Bartlett, D-Indianapolis, said that he’d “never seen a charade like this in my life.” Another, Rep. David Niezgodski, D-South Bend, said Democrats “object 100 percent.”

Protesters shouted “shame” as they left, with one saying the Republicans should be “tarred and feathered.”

A six-minute committee meeting. Ah, deliberative democracy. Here was the devious reason Republicans gave for refusing to allow amendments: Democrats failed to submit them 24 hours in advance of the hearing. The hearing was scheduled only 18 hours after the bill was announced on the floor. Joseph Heller’s got nothing on them.

We could be watching the a showdown in Indiana, now it is just a question of waiting to see if the Dems can hold out…

But, in Texas, there is a whole other can of worms opened up today by an Appeals Court that says Texas can force the Abortion law on women.

A Texas abortion law passed last year that requires doctors to show sonograms to patients can be enforced while opponents challenge the measure in court, a federal appeals court said Tuesday in a ruling that signaled the judges believe the law is constitutional.
When the state will begin enforcing the law was not immediately clear. The group that brought the case, the Center for Reproductive Rights, is weighing how to proceed and has 14 days to ask for a rehearing of the case. If there are no appeals by then, the court would likely allow the state to begin enforcing the law.
The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a temporary order against enforcing the law and went further to advise U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks how he should ultimately rule in the case. Chief Judge Edith H. Jones used her opinion to systematically dismantle the argument that the Texas law infringes on the free speech rights of doctors and patients, the key argument against the law.
“The required disclosures of a sonogram, the fetal heartbeat, and their medical descriptions are the epitome of truthful, non-misleading information,” Jones wrote. “The appellees failed to demonstrate constitutional flaws” with the law.

This should get the discussion going…at least until the circus results in New Hampshire gets started.