South Dakota’s Thune: Fresh Face Takes Hard Line

Greg Vadala of CQ Politics offers this Aug. 8 profile on South Dakota Sen. John Thune:

“South Dakota’s John Thune is emerging as a fresh public face for the depleted ranks of Senate Republicans, who are trying to move past their trouncing in last year’s election and the embarrassment of Sen. John Ensign ‘s public admission of an extramarital affair.

“When Ensign, R-Nevada, resigned under fire as chairman of the Senate GOP’s policy arm, party leaders turned to Thune, the conservative known for unseating Majority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004.Upon taking the reins of the influential Republican Policy Committee in June, Thune has stepped up the party’s partisan engagement, offering, for instance, a contentious firearms amendment that put many moderate and western Democrats on the spot …”

For more, go to: http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003189458//