Okay you guys, Michael Steele has been doing some Googling. No one panic. It’s just that, well, you’ve probably already heard about her, but… this Olympia Snowe lady? “I say, Welcome. Welcome. Each member of this party has a unique footprint. And it’s different from region to region. I can’t win in the Northeast with a candidate best suited for the South and vice-versa,” he said on teevee this morning, during which he disagreed with Tim Pawlenty’s criticism of Snowe’s liberal-ish proclivities. Oh but so anyway, because it is Michael Steele, his current M.O. is of course diametrically opposed to his public stance on this exact issue from ten months ago. MORE »

• Erick Erickson harvested a mighty army of orcs and then instructed them to purchase 1200 pounds of rock salt as a special present for traitorous Maine-witch Olympia Snowe. But will Senator Snowe take the hint and melt? [RedState]
• The Republican Insurgency Manifesto. [Ace of Spades]
• How easy would it be to bribe Glenn Beck? David Frum would be willing to offer him fifty Sacajawea gold coins and a hand job, but there’s a catch! [The Plank]
• Yes sir, this is our “volunteer army.” [Think Progress]
• Senator Iselin and Gateway Pundit have compiled a list of the names of 207 persons who are known by the Secretary of Defense as being members of the Communist Party! [Gateway Pundit]

Looking forward to this WSJ article, based on this epic thing. Can you imagine how many votes Olympia Snowe will win for life if her staffers go neighborhood to neighborhood giving each household a bag of rock salt for the winter? [Twitter]

This happened. [RedState]

Olympia Snowe is going to vote “yea” on health care reform today! She may not vote for it later, or she may use her leverage to gut it even further, or she may get sick of it all and pop off to Tijuana for some junk, who knows! But as of now, the Democratic leadership is ecstatic to have this single Republican vote out of 40. (Can you believe how stupid they think we are? They are doing anything to have this ONE Republican vote so as to refer to it as a “Bipartisan” bill. That’s their actual plan. “Oh look there are Democrats and Republicans for this bill!” “Yeah, one Republican, and she’s a communist.” “Hey shut up, blogger in your pajama pants!” “Unnecessary, Harry Reid. Unnecessary.” etc.) What else? Max Baucus? He’s being insufferable. MORE »

Holy baloney it’s 10:00 a.m.! The Senate Finance Committee will now meet for perhaps (hopefully!) the last time, ever. First, a lil’ testimony, a lil’ CBO Director Doug Elmendorf action. Fap? He could say anything! Then: Chuck Grassley fires a rocket out of his ass. Oh boy. Then some other shit. THEN: the big vote, to finally get this bill out of committee, where it has been since the Fillmore administration. WHAT WILL OLYMPIA SNOWE DO? Oh my god. Oh my god. Here’s the live feed, for nerds. No liveblogging just now, but maybe later? (Don’t hold your breath.) [MSNBC]

Alan Grayson! Yes! Who even is this guy, and yet, ALAN GRAYSON. Watch Alan Grayson carry on for like four minutes about how much he hates Olympia Snowe and her whole stupid state. He’s like, “Maine? Hardly!” Seriously, he basically says this. MORE »

• WELL, WELL: Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize! For nuclear things! Anyway this is better than at least 3/5 of the summer Olympic events. [New York Times]
• The moon, well, most of it, managed to prolong its existence overnight despite NASA’s best efforts. [New York Times]
• 160-ish people were killed in mudslides in the Philippines. The last time things were this flood-y there was 40 years ago. [AP]
• A car bomb in Pakistan killed 42 people and injured 60 more. No one officially took credit but people are generally thinking “Taliban.” [Times Online]
• Olympia Snowe arguably still matters. This seems tenuous! Anyway, the LA Times has interviewed every known resident of Maine to prove it. [LA Times]
• Gen. McChrystal and the military people would like 40,000 troops sent to Afghanistan. [WSJ]

You should read this whole Ezra Klein interview with Sen. Jay Rockefeller if you have the time, because Rockefeller is doing his best to preserve some kind of decent health care bill in the Senate, and candidly hints at all sorts of things: “I think the world of Olympia Snowe. She’s got incredible courage, and the Republican leadership is brutal in the way they apply pressure… They bring the hammer down on her, and I’m not going to say how,” and “If you really want to be honest about it, eight to 10 percent of the members of Congress understand health care. At maximum. I chaired the intelligence committee, and health care makes it look like riding on a tricycle it’s so complicated. So what you have is lobbyists picking on congressmen who don’t know health-care reform…” In other words, it’s a brand new Washington! [Ezra Klein]

* Heard on the Hill: Harry Reid and Sen. Olympia Snowe want to bring Al Gore’s stupid Live Aid rip-off show to DC… Jeff Bingaman, the man responsible for the stupid new daylight savings time start date, hates it as much as we do… Stevie Wonder, India.Arie, Chaka Khan, Smokey Robinson and Tony Bennett are all at the Capitol for some reason. [Roll Call]
* Reliable Source: Crazy Kiefer Sutherland exhausts RS with his rocking. This is awesome, though, we’ll give ‘em that… Dan Snyder’s nanny is suing him. [WP]
* Yeas and Nays: George Casey hurt himself jumping a fence. Pussy… Busboys and Poets named a ridiculous parody of hippie veganism after Dennis Kucinich… Everyone loves firefighters! [Examiner]
* Under the Dome: More on Gore’s concert: The Mall is booked that day… Dem Rep. Jim Oberstar hates all of you, especially Steny Hoyer. [The Hill]
* Shenanigans: Chuck Hagel skipped a fundraiser for wounded veterans because he HATES OUR TROOPS. [Politico]

Trouble in Maine! A seven-car interstate accident injures five, causes thousands of dollars in damage — but the cops won’t say who caused it! MORE »