DeMint has been a destructive force, threatening to primary colleagues, resisting all deals and offering very little in the way of attainable legislation. He has contributed more than any current senator to the dysfunction of that body. He has worsened relations between the House and Senate, as he did in the budget fights in recent years, by meddling and pressuring his home state representative. His departure leaves other senators who seemed impressed with his brand of politics free to find their way to a more constructive position in the body.The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin • Discussing why Jim DeMint’s departure from the Senate is a good thing for Congress … though it could prove much worse down the road, due to the influence he’ll yield as head of the Heritage Foundation. Rubin suggests he hurts the Heritage brand. “By embracing him, Heritage, to a greater extent than ever before, becomes a political instrument in service of extremism, not a well-respected think tank and source of scholarship,” she writes. “Every individual who works there should take pause and consider whether the reputation of that institution is elevated or diminished by this move. And I would say the same, frankly, if any other non-scholarly pol took that spot.”
South Carolina U.S. Senator Jim DeMint will replace Ed Feulner as president of the Heritage Foundation. Mr. DeMint will leave his post as South Carolina’s junior senator in early January to take control of the Washington think tank, which has an annual budget of about $80 million.
Sen. DeMint’s departure means that South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican, will name a successor, who will have to run in a special election in 2014. In that year, both Mr. DeMint’s replacement and Sen. Lindsey Graham will be running for reelection in South Carolina.
Mr. DeMint was reelected to a second term in 2010. The 61-year-old senator had announced earlier that he would not seek a third term.
WTF? WTF? (ht @ethanklapper)
Another special guest: Jim Demint. He asked about what to cut, federal-funding wise, leading to Mitt Romney using “Obamacare” for the first time. Huntsman refers to debt spending as a national security problem, and he notes that he backs the Paul Ryan plan — which seemingly hasn’t come up in months.
Wanna labor through a presidential forum? There are two GOP events this week, including one on Wednesday and this presidential forum happening right now in South Carolina. Jim DeMint, above, is playing host. Watch over here. We’ll have a roundup later today.
» Thanks for clearing that up for us, Jim. We were on pins and needles.
» Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story had a pretty bad error in it. Appropriate parties have been informed/chastized/made fun of. Our bad.
If you really want to have a chance of passing START, you better start over and do it in the next Congress, because this lame duck has been poisoned.Sen. Lindsey Graham • Trying to make an argument that Congress shouldn’t be working on passing the START treaty right now because it’s a lame-duck Congress. WAITWAITWAITWAITWAIT. Are you sure this duck is really all that lame? Seems like they’ve gotten a lot of stuff done in just a couple of weeks. A tax compromise. A major food-safety bill. A repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a piece of major social legislation … and a bunch of other stuff. Now, Lindsey Graham is one of the more level-headed Republicans in the Senate, but this just feels like a different spin on the whole “it’s Christmas” argument his South Carolina counterpart, Jim DeMint, was trying to pass off last week. Stop whining guys; it’ll be a lot less painful when it’s over. source (via • follow)
We shouldn’t be jamming a major arms control treaty up against Christmas; it’s sacrilegious and disrespectful. What’s going on here is just wrong. This is the most sacred holiday for Christians. They did the same thing last year - they kept everybody here until [Christmas Eve] to force something down everybody’s throat. I think Americans are sick of this.Sen. Jim DeMint • Saying a pretty douchey thing about doing his freaking job. So, to clarify … the GOP stonewalls the Democrats in the Senate the entire year, forcing legislation and judicial nominees from getting passed or even debated, and Jim here is all upset because they’re trying to actually get stuff passed while they still have some control of Congress? Yeah, you’re not a jerk. Perhaps you would enjoy your Christmas holiday more if YOU DIDN’T ACT LIKE A JERK THE REST OF THE YEAR. Don’t like it? Deal with it. Seriously, this is the most pathetic reasoning we’ve seen for any political ploy this year. Mind you, it’s December. source (via • follow)
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» Why this is bad for Democrats: Beyond the obvious “we’re going to lose a seat we expected to lose anyway” angle, Greene’s candidacy in South Carolina means that the influential far-right-leaning DeMint can spend his $4 million in funds on other things, such as, you know, propping up candidates who may not have the good fortune that he does.
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