UPDATE: SC Now has a regular Thursday feature with SC political scientist Dr. Neal Thigpen, who had some interesting things to say about DeMint’s current activities.
“…QUESTION: U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, on a number of occasions, has endorsed Republican candidates for public office in opposition of GOP leaders. Some of the candidates, which DeMint considers to be more conservative, have been underdogs challenging established, incumbent GOP favorites. DeMint has also used his political action committee, the Senate Conservatives Fund, to raise money for candidates that he supports. So far the fund has raised $1.45 million from nationwide contributions. Of the 413 people who have donated at least $200 to the fund, only 8 are from South Carolina. DeMint is a first-term senator who will be seeking reelection next year. Opposing the party endorsed candidate is pretty uncommon for a sitting senator and it’s almost unheard-of from a freshman. What do you make of DeMint’s tactics? Could it hurt him in his bid for re-election?
ANSWER: I don’t necessarily think it will hurt his bid for re-election, certainly he’s a lock in the primary…nobody’s gonna beat DeMint in a Republican senatorial primary…now it could…tend to hurt him a little bit in the general election, if you wind up with a Democratic nominee who could sell themselves as a more reasonable type of conservative…or at least a moderate…and could point to the fact that DeMint has been somebody that seems to…through his political action committee…stir up trouble…in Republican primaries…or in contests where you’ve got a regular Republican party nominee under the guise that they’re not conservative enough…that’s troubling your own house…and I think it’s bad business…but he probably feels like it behooves him because he’s really going national…to get his national numbers up ID wise and stake-out a position as a leading right-wing Republican in the country….”
ORIGINAL POST
“…One of the most conservative members in the upper chamber, he has said he would rather have 30 pure conservatives in the Senate than a majority of centrists….”
Would someone please explain Jim DeMint’s agenda? He is determined to put “pure” conservatives in office, completely going against all logic, wisdom, and reason. Then again, he is more interested in playing on the national stage than serving the people of South Carolina. He was elected to represent South Carolina…?
Why are people like Lindsey being portrayed falsely within the “conservative” media? What is going on? It appears that Lindsey is the primary target, time and time again.
It all goes back to the Tea Party “movement” where Jim DeMint is hailed as a “pure” conservative hero, and Lindsey is being denigrated as a traitor. The truth of the matter is there is very little difference in their voting records.
“…Most of the other supposed heretics being targeted by the right offer the same basic defense that Scozzafava pursued on Sunday, claiming that their views actually overlap with the right on most issues.
There is some quantitative evidence to back this up. For instance, Lindsey Graham, whom many on the right view as another Scozzafava, actually boasts a lifetime rating of 90 from the American Conservative Union. But Graham was recently censured by Republicans in his own state for being insufficiently conservative.
The right’s hostility toward Graham, Scozzafava and other perceived sell-outs (like Florida’s Charlie Crist) seems disproportionate when you consider their overall bodies of work. This suggests that emotion plays a strong role in the purity movement – that the willingness of any Republican to show public flexibility on an emotionally-resonant issue (like Graham working for an immigration compromise or Scozzafava supporting abortion and gay rights) is by itself enough for the right to declare that Republican a traitor to the cause….”
Why?
Jim DeMint is up to something. There are rumors that he wants to run for POTUS. Then there are other rumors that he is planning an outright assault on Mitch McConnell. It is obvious he has set himself up to be the great conservative king-maker, and could end up destroying the GOP in the process. What ever is going on, the man is truly ambitious, and appears to be more interested in gaining brownie points nationally than constituent service.
South Carolina’s Tea Party Senator, Jim DeMint, is either quite serious about his perpetual campaign for “purity” or else he is pandering to the far right. When one considers that the combined voting power of the far right who adores him and five bucks can get you a frap at Starbucks, it is entirely possible he is quite sincere.
DeMint is a big supporter of Chuck DeVore who is going all out against Carly Fiorina in California. If this is any indication, DeVore is not exactly a class act.
“…I’m not exactly sure what California Senate candidate Chuck DeVore, running to Fiorina’s right in the Republican primary, is trying to achieve with this Twitter taunt:
@carlyforca has been following the same 314 on Twitter for months. I follow 9,044. I listen to those whose votes I ask for. #tcot #gop #rs…”
Jim DeMint wants term limits. That’s nice, but say you put a 10 year limit on Congressmen and a 12 year limit on Senators. All they are going to do is turn into a revolving door, complementing one another, basically insuring NO ONE ELSE can get into the pool. They run for the House, get elected, then do the Senate, then run for Governor, then head back to the House, Senate, and then retire. There is room for no one else to step in and have a chance. The way DeMint envisions things, it will be more limiting and more difficult for someone new to enter politics than it already is.
Another problem - how close is Jim DeMint to Ron Paul?
The problem is Jim DeMint will not impose term limits on himself?
“...DeMint emphatically states that he will not impose a term limit on himself until the law is changed to term limit every member of Congress. But, he leaves plenty of fodder for any candidate seeking to unseat him in 2016 by calling for an end to the “era of permanent politicians.”
“As long as members have the chance to spend their lives in Washington, their interests will always skew toward spending taxpayer dollars to buy off special interests, covering over corruption in the bureaucracy, fundraising, relationship building among lobbyists, and trading favors for pork — in short, amassing their own power,” he says….”
Is all of this a ploy to circumvent the seniority system in the US Senate? There are some who think so.
“...It’s an ironic statement considering DeMint’s self-imposed ban on federal earmarks, funding for projects back home that are decided by lawmakers, sometimes without regard of the project’s needs or value. The two arguments are related — DeMint has often decried earmark spending as a wasteful tool wielded by long-time legislators.
This isn’t DeMint’s first attempt to circumvent Washington’s seniority-based leadership models. After defeat last November, DeMint called for sweeping changes within his own party, suggesting a frustration with being so low on the totem pole in relation to his fellow senators.“Then, let’s end the seniority system that turns too many Republican outsiders into Washington insiders,” he said at the time. “This requires term limiting our conference leader and appropriations committee members, then choosing committee heads on merit, not seniority.”
Is DeMint’s tinkering with the campaign system a way to grab power and build his seniority?
“...DeMint, who has met with or plans to interview 20 GOP candidates in eight states, has started doling out money from his Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee that’s raised $1.45 million — most of it from supporters in other states. “We’ve got a chance in this next election to prove a lot of establishment Republicans wrong and show that anywhere in the country principled conservatives can win,” DeMint told thousands of activists in a Nov. 3 conference call. DeMint, a first-term senator seeking re-election next year, has attracted conservative followers nationwide for blocking appropriations earmarks, helping to defeat immigration reforms and leading GOP opposition to expanded federal medical benefits. DeMint’s willingness to go outside his party’s official endorsement structure — led by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee — is rare for a sitting senator, and virtually unheard of for a freshman….Among 413 donors who’ve contributed at least $200 to DeMint’s Senate Conservatives Fund political action committee, only eight are from South Carolina. DeMint, 58, makes no bones that he’s more focused on advancing conservative goals nationwide than on pursuing the parochial interests of his state.
“All of you all over the country — please remember that Senate seats are not about a particular state,” DeMint told more than 4,000 listeners on the recent conference call. “They’re about our country,” DeMint said. “Every vote I take is not about South Carolina. It’s about the United States of America.”…”
Could all of this come back to haunt DeMint in 2010? If Chad McGowan, a Democrat from Rock Hill who is running for the job has anything to do with it, DeMint’s comments about not being all that concerned about SC could be a very big problem.
“...Unfortunately, that’s not what Sen. Jim DeMint is doing. Instead of working for the people of South Carolina and America in the Senate, he’s running around the country playing politics, intervening in Republican primaries in places like California, New York and Florida. If that’s your idea of statesmanship, then we can agree to disagree.
While Sen. DeMint is playing politics from coast to coast, he gets nothing done for our state or our nation. In the time he has been in the Senate, he hasn’t sponsored one bill that has passed into law. Not one. Is that your idea of a good senator? Is that the record of a statesman?
You say I prefer to focus “only on the narrow interests” of South Carolina. If by that you mean working to get a job for the 250,000 South Carolinians who don’t have one, you are right. If you mean working to fix our schools, make our streets and communities safer and make health care more available and affordable, you are right. If you mean working for the people of South Carolina instead of engaging in partisan political fights 3,000 miles away in California, you are right about that, too.
In point of fact, the choice you present is false. A senator should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. He should be able to represent South Carolina’s interest and the national interest. He should be able to tackle big national issues and do his job here at home….”
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