Friday link dump: Maine's crown princesses

• Quote of the day, from outgoing Congressman David Obey: "They wanted to hold [the stimulus] to less than $1 trillion. Then [Pennsylvania Senator Arlen] Specter and the two crown princesses from Maine [Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins] took it down to less than $800 billion. Spread over two and a half years, that’s a hell of a lot of money, but spread over two and a half years in an economy this large, it doesn’t have a lot of fiscal power."
• David Vitter, who is an asshole, has apologized to Rachel Maddow for making a sexist crack about her appearance this morning.
• The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is terrified of an upcoming major Dana Priest story about intelligence contractors.
• Dave Weigel sums up the stupid coverage of the Romney/Palin "spat".
• For some reason, senators don't want to comment on the John Stagliano obscenity trial.

By Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene

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