Call it incredible luck, call it determination, call it political skill or call it a sign of the poor state of the modern Republican party. Whatever the cause or set of causes, Mitt Romney has managed to end up basically the last legitimate Republican nominee standing.

John Thune (R-SD) has been rather publicly examining a potential 2012 presidential run for a while, but today, the Republican Senator announced he will not seek the nomination. Thune was viewed as the preferred choice among several party insiders and therefore a “legitimate candidate,” despite the fact that early polling had him trailing most other nominees.

It is amazing that at the same time Democrats were failing to find anyone to run against South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune, they were actively working to convince a Democrat to not run a statewide campaign for federal office.

In the end, it is the decision of the South Dakota Democratic Party and its leaders to take their ball and go home, but you really have to wonder what the hell has happened at the national level. Tim Kaine, Bob Menendez, I’m looking at you.

Oh heavens, it’s the end of the Senate as we know it, they say.

Thank you, thank you.

Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act in Congress made their Big Lie into a bill Wednesday, when Republicans John DeMint (S.C.) and Mike Enzi (Wyo.) introduced the so-called Secret Ballot Protection Act.

Before we go further, let’s clear up the bill’s false implication right now:

The Employee Free Choice Act would not—repeat after me—would not, take away the secret ballot National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process if workers seeking to form a union wanted to use it.