According to a recent poll done by Public Policy Polling, Stephen Colbert — yes, the same Stephen Colbert who hosts The Colbert Report — tops a list of likely Republican appointees for retiring South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint’s seat.

In the poll, 20% of voters polled chose him as their favorite candidate. Of course, the poll results should be taken with several grains of salt. First off, Colbert has greater name recognition than any of the other candidates being suggested as likely choices by Gov. Nikki Haley (Tim Scott, Trey Gowdy, Mick Mulvaney, Jeff Duncan, Henry McMaster, and Jenny Sanford). Second, Colbert — the actor, not the character — is the only liberal on a list of of conservatives, which meant he likely pulled in any liberal or centrist voters polled. Third, Haley is highly unlikely to select a TV host living and working out of New York for a South Carolina Senate seat.

Still, it’s not an idea to dismiss entirely. After all, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken used to write for and appear on Saturday Night Live. More recently, actress Ashley Judd has been making waves by suggesting she may run for Senate in Kentucky. Colbert could easily move back to South Carolina, as Judd would have to do to run in Kentucky, and that part of the argument against him would be invalid. Read 

An extra $63-per-head fee will be coming to many Americans’ health insurance bills under Obamacare in order to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions.

The fee is hidden in regulations recently released, and will amount to tens of millions of dollars in additional healthcare fees for the largest companies. Most of that fee will be passed on to employees.

According to figures provided in the regulation, about 190 million Americans would owe the fee. Most of the money will specifically go to the Health and Human Services Department, who will use it to protect health insurance companies from the costs of covering uninsured people with medical problems. As of Jan. 1, 2014, insurance companies will be forbidden from turning away people for pre-existing conditions. Read 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s attempt to out-maneuver the Democrats ended poorly for him, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called his bluff, forcing McConnell to filibuster his own bill.

How did this happen? McConnell, in an attempt to prove that the Democrats didn’t really want to end the fight over the debt ceiling that first began in 2011, asked for a vote on a bill that would give the president the ability to raise the debt ceiling. McConnell bet that Democrats wouldn’t be able to muster a regular majority to pass the bill.

After consulting with his caucus, Reid found support for the bill, brought it to the floor, and scheduled 20 minutes of debate before an up or down vote.  With his bluff now called, McConnell tried to convince Reid that “[m]atters of this level of controversy always require 60 votes.” Reid wasn’t buying it, and said “The republican leader objects to his own idea. We have a filibuster of his own bill.” Read 

Could a platinum coin worth $1 trillion help the U.S. avoid the debt ceiling?

Some people seem to think so.

Yes, the idea of minting platinum coins worth $1 trillion each — first proposed during the last debt ceiling fight in 2011 — is back in circulation. Read 

First responders who arrived at a New Jersey staging location in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy were initially told they weren’t needed and spent almost four days waiting for federal officials to give them assignments.

A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) worker told Fox News that the agency issued urgent calls for first responders as the storm battered coastal areas of New York and New Jersey, but failed to coordinate planning with local FEMA officials in the affected areas.

As a result, as emergency workers poured into FEMA’s Fort Dix, N.J., staging area, there was confusion. Local officials had not been advised that the first responders were coming and had nothing for them to do. While the responders awaited assignments from FEMA, tens of thousands in the affected region were suffering from the effects of storm surges, which flooded low-lying areas, destroying homes and knocking out electrical power. Read 

In an unexpected move, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., resigned his Senate seat in order to take over as president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

The resignation comes just two years into DeMint’s second six-year Senate term, and will be effective Jan. 1.

DeMint was known as a darling of the Tea Party movement, oftentimes holding views that were to the right of even his fellow GOP Senators. He was also known for lending a hand in GOP primaries on behalf of candidates who shared his conservative beliefs, opposing more centrist Republican candidates. Read