Sorry again for the power outage and early slow posting, but we’re now ahead of schedule (and thanks to Ryan for an intervention!). Here are some mid-day snacks from the chafing dishes:

* Palmetto State native Stephen Colbert volunteers for Senate duty!

* ThinkProgress’ Scott Keyes offers eleven reasons we should all be happy Jim DeMint is leaving the Senate.

* Dinesh D’Souza claims “liberal bias” denied him an “Best Documentary” Oscar nomination for 2016, but at Alternet Laura Gottesdiener suggests the film just sucked.

* Rothenberg notes that if they have a performance in Senate races in 2014 anything like this year’s, Dems will be in fine position to win super-majority in 2016.

* Cantor and Cuccinelli squabble over nominating process for Virginia Republican candidates.

And in non-political news:

* Baseball great Robin Yount Cheneys Cubs manager Dale Sveum during quail hunt; injuries not serious.

Back after a short break, but in honor of all the talk of my native state of South Carolina this morning, here’s the Byrds (with Gram Parsons) performing “Hickory Wind” in 1968.

Ed Kilgore

Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.