John Thune Is Not Running For President. Orrin Hatch is Retiring.
[UPDATE:] John Thune’s office is denying the report and says Thune supports the earmarks moratorium. That’s good news, but then we’re left wondering why multiple Senators and the campaigns of two Senators-Elect would be under the distinct impression that John Thune was directly soliciting their opposition to the moratorium. It is a secret ballot after all.—————–Sources in the United States Senate tell me John Thune has thrown in the towel on a 2012 run for President.How do they know?Thune is whipping votes for Mitch McConnell in order to defeat the Coburn-DeMint earmarks moratorium. There is no way Thune would so blatantly defy the grassroots of the GOP, the tea party movement, and virtually every major conservative group in Washington if he had any interest in being President in 2012.Well, with Thune’s Presidential political suicide that makes the 2012 list shorter by one.By the way, Orrin Hatch looks like he’ll be retiring. In addition to recently replacing his Chief of Staff, Hatch has come out against the earmarks moratorium making the odds increasingly likely that he won’t be back in 2012.He’ll either be retired or beaten in a GOP primary by Utah tea party activists — just like they did to Bob Bennett.