who will be the 'major republican' speaker at the dem convention?

[pbrower2a]

Olympia Snowe? Richard Lugar? Both have been effectively purged from the Senate by the Tea party cult. Neither has anything to lose but can take pot-shots at the right-wing extremists who have taken over the GOP. Both used to get lots of Democratic votes and won because they did.

Senator Linda Murkowski is probably disqualified because she ran as an independent.

It could be someone who knows Mitt Romney better than we do. Jon Huntsman might be having some second thoughts about whether Mitt Romney deserves his endorsement, perhaps after some erratic statements on foreign policy. If anyone knows both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney it is Jon Huntsman.

President Obama would love to poach some conservative votes. More significantly he would like some more Democrats in the House... but to pick any up in the South he would have to accept some influential conservative Democrats who can't be trusted to vote as a rubberstamp.  A conservative Democrat can vote against President Obama on guns, taxes, or gays... if they get to vote as their districts want them to vote on such things as farm policy or public works. A Tea Party pol can be trusted to vote exactly as Karl Norquist or Grover Rogue dictates. If it is a question of whether my district gets a freeway segment to supplant the local Blood Alley, I would prefer that such be up to Congress and not to some Party Boss.