FLORIDA: Per CNN’s Peter Hamby, “Florida is now expected to hold its presidential primary on the last day in January 2012, a move likely to throw the carefully arranged Republican nominating calendar into disarray and jumpstart the nominating process a month earlier than party leaders had hoped. Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon told CNN on Tuesday that a state commission exploring potential primary dates is likely to choose January 31 to hold the nominating contest.”

SOUTH CAROLINA: “South Carolina county leaders are in revolt and threatening legal action, saying the state plans to leave them to pick up part of the tab for their first-in-the-South presidential primary,” the AP reports. “And the state's county association said Monday that courts need to decide whether counties or the state even have the legal authority to conduct the primary Republicans brag has been a must-win for every GOP hopeful since 1980 who has claimed the nomination.”

And just wow: AP: “South Carolina's governor is ordering state workers to cheerfully answer phones with the phrase ‘It's a great day in South Carolina.’ Republican Nikki Haley issued the order at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, saying the phrase will put workers in a better mood and remind them that they work for the public. She also says the public will feel better, too.”