Florida's Crist Changes Parties; Colbert Won't Replace DeMint In Senate (Really)

By Korva Coleman

Published December 8, 2012 at 11:39 AM EST

As NPR's S.V. Date writes,

"Once a popular Republican governor in Florida, Crist was on the short list for vice president in 2008 but lost that nod to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. In 2009, he had a falling out with Florida conservatives after embracing President Obama's stimulus program. At the time, Crist had been regarded as the front runner for the GOP Senate nomination in 2010, but he was challenged by Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio. Falling behind Rubio in the polls, Crist dropped out of the Republican primary to seek the Senate seat as an independent. Rubio won easily."

Separately, and sadly, Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert won't get a warm political welcome from South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley. This week, Colbert urged fans to pester Haley to name him to replace outgoing GOP Sen. Jim DeMint, who's leaving to run the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

But it ain't happening. Apparently, Haley flunked him on her Facebook page for failing to remember a key historical fact about South Carolina:

"Stephen, thank you for your interest in South Carolina's U.S. Senate seat and for the thousands of tweets you and your fans sent me.

But you forget one thing, my friend.

You didn't know our state drink. Big, big mistake."

South Carolina's state drink is milk. Got Milk, Stephen?