Wasting no time turning the page on yesterday's unpleasantness, Republicans have chosen Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi to take over the leadership positions that Sen. John Ensign and Gov. Mark Sanford vacated in the wake of their sex scandals this week and last.

Barbour, who will chair the RGA, is well-known to most political watchers as the head of the RNC during the '94 Congressional sweep. He later became a big-time Washington lobbyist, and is now a get-it-done governor of Mississippi.

Thune becomes the #4 Republican in the Senate and is a lesser-known, but fast-rising spokesman for GOP in Washington. If you don't know who he is now, take a moment to read up, because you'll hear the name "John Thune" soon enough.

Here's a little background on the man Republicans put out front today....

* Thune is a first-term senator from South Dakota;
* He is very tan;
* He knocked off Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) by about 4,500 votes to win his Senate seat in 2004;
* Thune also ran for Senate in 2002, when he lost to Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) by about 500 votes;
* Thune was a 3-term House member from South Dakota, but left after his 3rd term because he pledged to serve only six years;
* He went to Biola University, a conservative Christian college in California, and has an MBA from University of South Dakota;
* On Republicans' hot-button issues, Thune is a big-time gun rights advocate, he opposed embryonic stem cell research, he's against gay-marriage and is staunchly pro-life.
* When we ask rank-and-file GOP'ers who they see as a rising star, Thune's name is always on the list. Today, he became the #4 Republican in the Senate leadership.
* Finally, here he is on MSNBC saying that Uncle Sam is no CEO...

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