Jim DeMint to Head Heritage Foundation; Resigning from Senate

South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint will give up his Senate seat in the beginning of January to lead the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., the senator announced on Thursday.

DeMint, a well-known conservative who was re-elected to a second term in 2010, will replace Heritage President Edwin J. Feulner, who has led the organization since its founding 36 years ago.

From DeMint’s statement released Thursday morning:

I’m leaving the Senate now, but I’m not leaving the fight. I’ve decided to join The Heritage Foundation at a time when the conservative movement needs strong leadership in the battle of ideas. No organization is better equipped to lead this fight and I believe my experience in public office as well as in the private sector as a business owner will help Heritage become even more effective in the years to come.

for full article: http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=Ao1bjW9gY9QkZqQGfSgO_IybvZx4?p=JIM+DEMINT&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-563

Jim DeMint: My Plan Has Been 2 Terms and Go Home to My Porch! (But Aides say 2016 May Still be on the Table)

If all goes according to plan, Jim DeMint has run his last race

By: Conn Carroll | Senior Editorial Writer Follow Him @conncarroll | 07/29/11 9:29 AM

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., tells National Journal that his current term will be his last:

NJ Any regrets about not getting into the presidential race?

DeMINT No; it’s just not an ambition of mine.

NJ What is your ambition?

DeMINT My hope is to elect five or 10 more solid conservatives and go home and rock on my front porch.

NJ This is your last term?

DeMINT Yeah. It was not a campaign promise; but that is my plan, that the election last year was my last one. It has always been my plan not to serve more than two terms.

DeMint was just reelected in 2010 so his current term does run all the way through 2016. But even then, it is hard to imagine him disappearing entirely. In his six short years in the Senate so far, he has already moved the Republican caucus visibly to the right. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., all were helped by DeMint endorsements. When 2017 does roll around, conservatives will miss him dearly.

UPDATE: DeMint aide emails to say DeMint “plan” has been for 2010 to be his last race. But DeMint “hasn’t ruled out” a 2016 run either.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/07/jim-demint-has-run-his-last-race?utm_source=feedburner+BeltwayConfidential&utm_medium=feed+Beltway+Confidential&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BeltwayConfidential+%28Beltway+Confidential%29feed&utm_content=feed&utm_term=feed#ixzz1TVyGW6gd

Sen. Jim DeMint Discusses 2012 POTUS Run with Wife

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) says he is considering running for president after frustrated conservative activists have pleaded with him to run. 

DeMint told The Hill that he has discussed a White House bid with his wife and will pray on the question out of respect for his supporters across the country. 

For  the full story: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/164095-sen-demint-mulls-2012-bid-for-the-white-house

DeMint Keeps an Open Mind at 2012 Run

Washington (CNN) – News that South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint will travel to Iowa on March 26 to address a conservative forum organized by Rep. Steve King is sparking another round of chatter that DeMint might launch a dark horse bid for the White House in 2012.

The Republican gadfly has been adamant in denying such intentions for more than a year – just Wednesday, he gave CNN’s Wolf Blitzer a flat “No” when asked if he plans to seek his party’s presidential nomination.

But the ground may be shifting in DeMint-world, and several of his closest advisers and political confidantes are now telling CNN that he is at least open to a presidential bid if a suitably conservative candidate fails to emerge from the early and wide-open GOP field.

“I think that you can read into it that he sees he has a role in the process and he hasn’t completely shut the door,” said one DeMint adviser asked about the Iowa foray.

DeMint currently sees his role in the 2012 process, the adviser said, as “setting the bar high” for the presidential contenders when it comes to advocating for a small government agenda.

“He hasn’t completely shut the door on running, and if there is a massive void in the group of candidates, who knows what could happen?,” said the adviser, who was quick to caution that there is only a five percent chance the senator will run.

for full article: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/27/demint-open-to-2012-presidential-bid-advisers-say/

DeMint: Tax Cut Compromise & Debate Should Wait for the Next Congress to be Sworn In

In an e-mail to supporters of his Senate Conservatives Fund, DeMint said waiting until the January arrival of many of the Senate Republicans, whom he helped elect this past cycle, would mean the GOP could “fight for a better deal.”

“I appreciate the efforts made by my party’s leaders to negotiate this deal but I believe Americans deserve much better. This deal should be rejected and then fixed,” DeMint wrote. “We can easily extend these tax rates without increasing spending once the new crop of Republican senators, including Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Ron Johnson are sworn in.”

For full article: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/133105-demint-wait-for-marco-rubio-rand-paul-before-dealing-on-tax-cuts

DeMint Urges Power Back to the States

Sen. Jim DeMint argued for a “devolution of power out of Washington,” saying Sunday that “the fact is, education probably would work a lot better without the Department of Education.”

The South Carolina Republican had been asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether candidates whom he and the tea party movement have endorsed are too far out of the political mainstream. When host Candy Crowley gave Sharron Angle’s call to abolish the Education Department as an example, DeMint said, “She’s very bold to say it.” Angle is the GOP candidate challenging Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) for his Senate seat in Nevada.

“I would support a devolution of power out of Washington for education, health care, transportation, and I’ve introduced a lot of legislation for that, too,” DeMint added, saying the power should go to the states. “And you can do it in a common-sense, reasonable way that doesn’t disrupt any of the activities that we support”

For full article: http://www.rollcall.com/news/49987-1.html

FCC will use “Child Access to Porn” as Basis of Power Grab of Internet Control; DeMint Mounts Challenge

Pledging to fight an “Internet takeover,” Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) announced on Thursday that he will introduce legislation to weaken the “activist bureaucracy” at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after the agency moved toward boosting its authority over broadband service providers at a morning meeting.

Blasting the FCC’s decision as a “power grab,” DeMint called for a neutered FCC govered by sun-sets on regulations and slowed by new standards for agency action.

“Obama’s FCC is now changing the rules to takeover and tax the Internet,” DeMint said, calling the commission’s latest move an example “of government agencies overstepping their bounds and creating their own laws without Congressional authority.”

DeMint bases his bill on legislation he introduced in 2005 to comprehensively update communications law, a process that last occurred in 1996.

For the full story: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/103997-demint-bill-would-gut-activist-prevent-internet-takeover

DeMint: 90% of Legislation is Passed Unread, With Secrecy

Sen. Jim DeMint: A Lone Patriot Trying to “Right the Right”

Senator Jim DeMint knows when a brand’s gone bad and what to do to fix it. The South Carolina Republican spent more than 25 years in advertising before going into politics, and his demeanor – from the pin stripe suit to his salesman pitch delivered with a smile – has a Mad Men quality to it, almost as if Don Draper had been thrown forward 50 years and his only client was the Tea Party movement.

 The Grand Ole Party’s brand has been failing for some time, DeMint says in an interview at the Capitol Hill Club – an exclusive Washington institution for Republican members and Senators. “The angst was growing during the Clinton years, during the Bush years. And then the bailout was the wake up call,” DeMint says. “The Tea Parties, they’re just saying: ‘Enough is enough.’ The question is are Republicans going to open their arms and say, ‘We’re sorry we made a mistake, trust us again.’ Or are they going to keep spit-balling them?” (See “Portraits of the Tea Party Movement.”)

 For years, DeMint has been the Cassandra of the fiscal right, warning that his colleagues were ignoring their base on everything from No Child Left Behind and the Medicare Prescription Drug Program to the Bridge to Nowhere. Such gloom and doom – not to mention to DeMint’s amazing capacity to single – handedly gum up the Senate when he objects to a spending bill – would in years past have earned him the chairmanship of the Subcommittee for Underwater Basket Weaving.

But this cycle, Jim DeMint is a prophet. “I think for most Republicans in the Senate the Tea Party is viewed as a threat; to me it’s the cavalry I’ve been waiting for,” DeMint says with a laugh.

for full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100520/us_time/08599199037100

GOP Finds Loophole to “Counter” Reconciliation Process in the Senate

     It has been announced that the House Ways and Means Committee, headed by the ethics-plagued Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), is crafting an ObamaCare compromise bill that would enable the Senate to vote using their simple majority reconciliation process.

     However, it appears that there is a countermeasure that can be employed that will frustrate the Reconciliation process:

As it turns out, Senate Democrats may not be able to force healthcare legislation through the chamber on a simple majority vote.

Republicans say they have found a loophole in the budget reconciliation process that could allow them to offer an indefinite number of amendments.

Though it has never been done, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) says he’s prepared to test the Senate’s stamina to block the Democrats from using the process to expedite changes to the healthcare bill.

 Experts on Senate procedural rules, from both parties, note that such a filibuster is possible. While reconciliation rules limit debate to 20 hours, senators lack similiarconstraints on amendments and could conceivably continue offering them until 60 members agree to cut the process off.

For full article: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/79423-gop-finds-loophole-in-reconciliation-ploy

Are they all DEAF…. this is NOT the legislation, the reform, that the American public wants. Back up, regroup, and start from scratch— that is the message that they are missing!