Carolina Politics Online

DeMint offered a long list of complaints about McCain’s record in the Senate and on the campaign trail.

“McCain, who is proponent of campaign finance reform that weakened party organizations and basically put George Soros in the driver’s seat,” DeMint said. “His proposal for amnesty for illegals. His support of global warming, cap-and-trade programs that will put another burden on our economy. And of course, his embrace of the bailout right before the election was probably the nail in our coffin this last election. And he has been an opponent of drilling in ANWR, at a time when energy is so important. It really didn’t fit the label, but he was our package.”

Bush and Stevens, he said, had corrupted the party brand by expanding the size of government and engaging in wasteful government spending. Had Republicans not strayed from their core beliefs in recent years, DeMint argued, the election results might have been different.

“Americans do prefer a traditional conservative government,” he said. “They just did not believe Republicans were going to give it to them.”

CNN

And this has been rehashed many times since the election by people in Republican circles, but I agree with what DeMint was saying.  McCain was not able to raise a competitive war chest against Obama because Republican donors just didn’t trust him.  Look at the tens of thousands that would show up to hear Obama speak and then see how lackluster support was for McCain.  McCain’s time was in 2000.  He should have been the Republican nominee then and I think he would have won and I think American would be on a much better track today than it is under George Bush, but that’s then and this is now.

But look, the damage was done to the GOP long before McCain’s quest for the White House.  The Bush neocons put the party on life support and I don’t think there was much McCain could have done to change the results of this election.  The will exists within the grassroots of the GOP to fix the mess.  I have no doubt they’ll pick themselves up and get back in the race.

Sen. Jim DeMint has been renamed chairman of the Senate Republican Steering Committee — the unofficial caucus of Senate conservatives — for the 111th Congress, and he wants the change in Washington to begin in his own party.

“We have a shortage of courage, and we also have a shortage of vision based on our core principles,” DeMint told HUMAN EVENTS. “A few of us need to step up and try to lead and hope that folks will come with us. I believe that most of the Republicans, the large majority, would follow a conservative plan and agenda if we had the leadership to go that way. But we have not had that.”

Human Events

Very true.  If the Bush administration and those in the Republican leadership in Congress had followed DeMint’s agenda on how government should work the Republican would more than likely still be a majority party.  The fact of the matter is they betrayed the people that elected them by becoming the very things they ran against.  The polls show we are still a center right country.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5297138/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26843704

“Republicans in the Senate suffered major losses last night because they failed to stand up for conservative principles over the last two years. Rather than opposing the big government policies promoted by congressional Democrats and the White House, many Republicans chose to play it safe, blend in, and compromise again and again. Rather than working together to create a compelling message based on conservative principles, Republicans backed a trillion dollar bailout and continued to support wasteful earmark spending. This strategy is exactly what cost Republicans control of Congress in 2006 and now it has forced the GOP deep into the political wilderness.

“Republicans have now lost a dozen Senate seats in just two years, which is completely unacceptable. The time for excuses is over. Millions of conservative, freedom-loving Americans do not want their representatives in Washington to be a permanent minority. We need more conservative leaders in the Senate who will boldly stand up for our security, our economic freedom, and our values. We need more conservative leaders who will do everything in their power to stop President-elect Obama and the Democrats in Congress from taking away our freedom with socialist policies. We need more leaders who will put the interests of the American people ahead of their own political careers.

H/T Save The GOP

The Senate as you are well aware by now passed a sweetened version of the bailout Tuesday evening.  The House voted again today and complied, as I suspected they would.  So the dirty deed is now done.  Bear in mind that this bill was rife with waist added by the Senate on Tuesday night that had nothing to do with the economical turmoil.

• $2 million tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children
• $100 million tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners
• $192 million in rebates on excise taxes for the Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum industry
• $148 million in tax relief for U.S. wool fabric producers
• $49 million tax benefit for fishermen and other plaintiffs who sued over the 1989 tanker Exxon Valdez spill.

People, are you not outraged?  If so, ask yourself why you might be going to the voting booth in November to return the same people to office who just voted for one of the largest Federal power grabs in American history and threw almost a trillion dollars of money we don’t have down the toilet.  Are those of you in South Carolina prepared to give Lindsey Graham another six years?  Think twice.  He’s one of the culprits.  Richard Burr also voted for it on behalf of North Carolina.  Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) opposed the measure.  Additionally, both Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama voted for the bailout as did VP candidate Joe Biden.

I can’t get the vote information from the House yet.  The Web site must be getting swamped with traffic because it’s timing out on me, but I’ll post it as soon as I have it available.

Update: I now have the House roll. Sue Myrick and Gresham Barrett flipped on this, voting for the bailout today, whereas they voted against it before.

Voting for the bill:

• Bob Etheridge (D-NC-02)
• David Price (D-NC-04)
• Howard Coble (R-NC-06)
• Sue Myrick (R-NC-09)
• Mel Watt (D-NC-12)
• Brad Miller (D-NC-13)
• Henry Brown (R-SC-01)
• Joe Wilson (R-SC-02)
• Gresham Barrett (R-SC-03)
• Bob Inglis (R-SC-04)
• John Spratt (D-SC-05)
• Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06)

Voting against the bill:

• G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-01)
• Walter Jones (R-NC-03)
• Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05)
• Mike McIntyre (D-NC-07)
• Robin Hayes (R-NC-08)
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)
• Heath Shuler (D-NC-11)

The U.S. Senate today overwhelmingly sent President Bush a spending bill of $634 billion to keep the government “operating beyond the current budget year.”  If only that were the case.  This budget passage, as every other, consisted of a hogfest of a Congressional pen of pigs in starched white shirts feeding from the trough that you and I provided.  This thing is stuffed with thousands of earmarks in addition to $25 billion of taxpayer funded loans to help bailout the automakers.  The bill was presented in its final form from the House to the Senate as H.R. 2638, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008, sponsored by none other than our very own Representative David Price (D-NC-04).

How did our representatives vote?  As usual, in the Senate Jim DeMint stood up and vocally opposed the legislation.  Lindsey Graham joined him in voting against it.  Richard Burr made a rare and unusual move, voting Present, Giving Live Pair.  What this means is that somebody else who not present at the vote and knew they wouldn’t be who planned on voting the opposite way Burr was made a deal with him to vote present so that the outcome wouldn’t be altered by their absence.  In other words, for the sake of argument, let’s say Burr was hypothetically going to vote No, but John McCain was absent and was planning to vote Yes which would cancel out Burr’s vote anyway.  McCain would ask Burr to vote Present then so that the same result is produced.  As I said, this is just a hypothetical.  Burr may have intended to vote Yes and made a deal with an absent Senator who wanted to vote against it.  And we can’t forget Liddy Dole who as usual voted for her pork.

In the House we had the following voting for the waste:

• G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-01)
• Bob Etheridge (D-NC-01)
• David Price (D-NC-04)
• Howard Coble (R-NC-06)
• Mike McIntyre (D-NC-07)
• Robin Hayes (R-NC-08)
• Sue Myrick (R-NC-09)
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)
• Mel Watt (D-NC-12)
• Brad Miller (D-NC-13)
• Henry Brown (R-SC-01)
• Joe Wilson (R-SC-02)
• John Spratt (D-SC-05)
• Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06)

Voting against the waste were:

• Walter Jones (R-NC-03)
• Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05)
• Gresham Barrett (R-SC-03)
• Bob Inglis (R-SC-04)

Heath Shuler did not vote.

Saying that Americans can “no longer trust the economic information they are getting from this administration,” U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint broke Monday with the Bush White House and will oppose its “irresponsible” bailout plan.

“The administration said the bailout of Bear Stearns would stop the bleeding and solve the problem, but they were wrong,” DeMint said. “They said $150 billion in new government spending using rebate checks would solve the problem, but they were wrong again. They said new authority to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would solve the problem without being used, but they were wrong again. Now they want us to trust them to spend nearly $1 trillion on more government bailouts. It’s completely irresponsible.”

DeMint placed the blame for the crisis on “misguided government policies” and said that “socializing an entire sector of the U.S. economy” could make matters worse.

The Greenville News

There is no special “spidey-sense” that makes Jim DeMint such an awesome representative for the people in D.C.  He simply possesses something that most politicians don’t have, common sense.

This bailout should not come to fruition.  It will, but it shouldn’t.  AIG and all the other institutions out there need to be allowed to fail.  They need to reap that which they have sewn so that the rest of the industry learns from their mistakes and does not repeat them.

Will we have a recession?  Oh, most certainly.  Will it be a really bad one?  That’s highly probable, but I welcome it.  Those are the consequences the American people have to pay for sending all of these greedy, brain dead twats to Congress who created all of this mess with their interference in the financial sector over the past 31 years (It began with the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977).  These institutions in over their heads need to fail and the market needs to be allowed to correct itself.

Don’t worry your pretty little head over it, though, because there is no way with an election less than two months away that either party is going to allow the natural pattern of things to unfold so that they can be blamed by the other party for being at fault for causing this catastrophe.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a taxpayer watchdog group that ranks our Congressmen on their effectiveness of responsibly managing our tax dollars and not spending it on frivolous pork barrell spending.  Overall, the current Congress sucks the toejam off a homeless man’s foot in this regard, but our representatives from both North and South Carolina were a little better than most.  A rating of 100% is a taxpayer hero and a rating of 0% is a government elected thief stealing your money in order to pander to his constituents at reelection time.  Our two states received no 100s or zeros, but came close on both ends.

Our four Senators did a pretty good job.  Both Burr and DeMint received an honorable mention by the CAGW, each scoring a 97%.  Graham came in with an 87% and Dole with 73%.  Overall, these scores are acceptable.  The House?  Not so much….

The Republicans did decently for the most part, which surprised me because southern Republicans typically are some of the worst abusers for earmarking in Congress.  The Democrats all performed abysmally and Henry Brown, Robin Hayes, and Walter Jones could use some work themselves.

Senator Dole remarked how historic it is to have the opportunity to elect the first female vice-president.  Senator Burr commented on her strong pro-life conservatism and her proven track record of reform and transparency in Alaska.  He referred to her as an “excellent” pick.  Congresswoman Virginia Foxx sent out a press release this afternoon praising the pick, saying “Senator John McCain’s selection of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate shows that he is serious about shaking up the status quo in Washington .”

In South Carolina, Senator DeMint also echoed Palin’s record on reform as well as her strong conservative credentials.  Congressman Inglis was impressed by Palin’s reform efforts in Alaska because she took on the corruption in her own party.  State House Speaker Bobby Harrell was stunned by the announcement and thinks she will make an excellent Vice-President.  Governor Sanford called her a “fearless advocate for good government in Alaska.”

My personal opinion is that Palin was an excellent pick.  She has an 83% approval rating as Governor of Alaska, which is beyond phenomenal.  She is highly respected among conservatives, which was a weak part of the base for McCain.  Additionally, she is a strong, outspoken, and accomplished woman which is sure to attract like minded women to McCain.  And it doesn’t hurt that she is a total MILF.

I mean, seriously, how can you vote against this??

And I like it!

DeMint is no longer a Republican “team player.” For the past two years, he has been a conservative advocate who pushes against the policies of the leaders of both parties. He frustrates his own leaders as much as Democrats when he gathers the few conservatives in the Senate against huge spending measures and continually raises the profile of earmarks.

While other Republicans are worrying about the number of GOP senators who are retiring and jeopardized by elections this year, DeMint is not. Many of those senators, he says, are the professional appropriators who need to go.

Jim DeMint is exactly the kind of lawmaker we should have in Washington.  He is someone who truly stands up and represents the idea of limited government and personal freedom.  Sadly, he is one of the very few that is actually sweating away to be the taxpayers’ watchdog and safeguard our tax dollars.  The Republicans got their asses kicked in ‘06 because they failed on all fronts to be the fiscally responsible party, the limited government party, and the party of personal freedom.  DeMint gets it, but the fact that 95% of the louses in his party have not changed their careless ways despite the thumping they received shows they care more about enriching themselves rather than doing what is right for America.

We in South Carolina are lucky and proud to have Senator DeMint speaking for us in Washington D.C. and I wish him many more plentiful years in Washington to come.  Maybe the White House could be in his future some day.

State Democratic Party Chairman Carol Fowler listed off the five possible candidates who she thinks may compete for the Democratic nomination for the 2010 gubernatorial race in South Carolina.

That list includes:

• Joe Erwin, 51, a Greenville advertising executive

• Former state Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum, 57

• State Rep. James Smith of Columbia, 40

• Sen. Joel Lourie of Columbia, 45, a close friend to Smith

• State Sen. Vincent Sheheen, 37, of Kershaw

The only one of the five I am really familiar with is Inez Tenenbaumand she is a big no in my book.  Tenenbaum ran in 2004 for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by then Senator Fritz Hollings (D).  Tenenbaum lost the election to our current Senator Jim DeMint (R).  Tenenbaum ran a dirty campaign and misleading ads attacking DeMint claiming that he was supporting a plan to implement a 23% Federal sales tax across the country.  Well, that is partly true.  She was referring to the Fair Tax legislation, which would implement a 23% sales tax on all new goods and services.  What the ad conveniently left out was that it would replace the current Federal Income Tax, so we would no longer pay taxes on our income, but rather our consumption.

MOUNT PLEASANT — U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint stopped by Tuesday to drum up support for drilling off the East Coast, but it appeared most of the 150 people in attendance already agreed with him.

Still, he also faced some skeptical questions about oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Katrina and whether a chunk of this state’s attractive coast would be lost to refineries, pipelines and storage tanks.

The Post and Courier

Using our own resources is an unquestionable necessity and should not be compromised by proposals like that of the “Gang of 10.”  The Republicans have done an excellent job so far of putting pressure on the Pelosi Congress to allow a vote on lifting the Federal ban on offshore drilling and if they keep it up they will be successful.  The majority of Americans support this and the Democrats will pay for it in November at the polls if they don’t comply.

The concerns about oil spills due to hurricanes is legitimate.  We want to make sure these oil rigs are secure from that type of disaster.  Oil spills are very damaging and extremely expensive to clean up, but with today’s technology this shouldn’t be out of reach.

WASHINGTON — A defiant S.C. Sen. Jim DeMint said last week that his failure to reduce the cost of President Bush’s $48 billion global AIDS program won’t deter him from continuing to compel lawmakers to take tough votes on government spending.

DeMint responded after the Senate overwhelmingly approved a significant expansion of the AIDS initiative Bush launched in 2003 to stem the disease’s spread in Africa.

“Folks in South Carolina want accountability in Washington, and I’m not going to be shy to pull back the curtain on Congress’ misplaced priorities and deficit spending,” DeMint said. “Before we forced a debate, few Americans knew our tax dollars are being funneled to a Chinese organization that promotes forced abortions and sterilizations. That’s an outrage that everyone should know about, but the bill’s supporters wanted to keep it quiet.”

Charlotte Observer

Washington is full of political cowards.  Few politicians have the courage and the integrity to fight the status quo and make the tough decisions needed to generate real change in this country, like Senator DeMint.  He gives those of us in South Carolina proud representation and if the Republicans and Democrats produced office holders like him we’d get this country moving in the right direction.  As it is, the vast majority of them are looking out for themselves, not for us.

The State asks if Senator Jim DeMint could be our generation’s Jesse Helms.

DeMint, like Helms, is an ideological purist who holds fast to conservative principles such as low spending, low taxes, deregulation and strong national defense.

DeMint also, like Helms, doesn’t mind antagonizing fellow Republicans who drift leftward on those core principles. DeMint emerged as a leader in the Senate during his fight to sink illegal immigration reform, splitting with much of the Republican Party to kill a plan designed by President Bush.

“I spent a number of years as a team player, trying to work with our leadership, only to find that our leadership was taking us in the wrong direction,” DeMint said earlier this month about his willingness to take on his party.

I think the comparison is plausible, but DeMint would shine in a much better light than Helms did.  DeMint shows the same committment to principle and the conservative cause as Helms, but he does so without all of the baggage Helms carried.  I am speaking on issues relating to civil rights.  Helms was on the wrong side of the civil rights movement in his opposition to racial equality.  While DeMint is also a social conservative who strongly believes in the traditional family structure, his views on civil rights are far more progressive than Senator Helms.

I hope DeMint does indeed become the next conservative leader of our time.  Somebody needs to take the reigns and slap the GOP around for their failures and betrayals.  I want to see a resurrected committment to individual freedom and limited government and right now they aren’t even close.

The State is reporting today that both Senators Graham (R) and DeMint (R) have changed their opposition to offshore drilling as has Congressman Joe Wilson (R) of the Second Congressional District. They are three more of a growing list of politicians now supporting our nation’s ability to drill offshore in the wake of out of control gasoline prices. I just posted the other that North Carolina Senators Elizabeth Dole (R) and Richard Burr (R) and Congressman Mike McIntyre (D) have also moved in the direction of offshore drilling.

WASHINGTON — If Andrew Jackson created the notion of a president’s “Kitchen Cabinet,” Sen. John McCain is reinventing it months before his possible election to the White House.

And Sen. Lindsey Graham seems to be McCain’s one-man Kitchen Cabinet.

Graham’s visibility as the Arizona senator’s closest political confidant has risen in recent weeks as the two men crisscross the country and travel abroad on McCain’s presidential quest.

“There’s nobody I trust more than Lindsey Graham,” McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, said by phone Thursday from Mexico City. “I’m honored to have him travel with me and give me the counsel I need.”

The State

I guess one good thing about Graham getting a cabinet position in a possible McCain administration would be that it gets him the hell out of South Carolina.  Then Mark Sanford could appoint his replacement.  With Sanford’s libertarian streak, it is highly likely we would get another Senator in the mold of Jim DeMint which would be fantastic.

Call Senator DeMint and let him know you support his efforts on this issue!

The housing lobby is frustrated by the delay in passing the Mortgage Bailout Bill and has decided to target Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC) and John Ensign (R-NV).  Recently, lobbyists representing housing industry have started putting pressure on these two Senators whom they view to be the source of the delay.

The motive of the housing lobby should be obvious - if the $300 billion bailout is passed, then they will stand to benefit greatly from not having to take responsibility for their bad loans.  However, Senators DeMint and Ensign have been on the right side of this issue from day one and are leading the fight to expose the bill for what it is: an irresponsible bailout for house flippers and their banks.

Please take a few minutes to call 1-866-928-3035 to express your support for Senators DeMint and Ensign and encourage them to continue to stand firm for limited, responsible government.

Andrew Brown
Federal and State Campaigns
FreedomWorks
601 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
North Building, Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20004-2601
(202) 783-3870 phone
(214) 336-5273 cell
(202) 942-7649 fax
www.FreedomWorks.org

The Charlotte Observer did an exposé on Senator DeMint and the growing reputation he has been gaining among conservatives not just in South Carolina, but across the country.  For several months now DeMint has been on the forefront of trying to pull the Republican Party back to its Reagan roots and while among the members of Congress it’s been somewhat of a futile effort, it hasn’t gone unnoticed among Republicans nationwide.

The tipping point for DeMint was the 2006 congressional elections: Democrats regained control of Congress after spending had skyrocketed under GOP rule, while sex and lobbying scandals brought down prominent Republican lawmakers. “There was vastly too much spending, a lot of it in direct earmarks that enriched some of our own members and ended up in scandals and the betrayal of the American people,” DeMint said.

DeMint added: “It’s just time to recognize that we’ve got to reshape the Republican Party if we’re going to win the trust of the American people.”

When Republicans ran on common sense fiscal conservativism and beliefs in limited government they cleaned up across the board in 1994.  They could do it again, but they need to rebuild from the ground up.  DeMint gets it and he will be a strong leader in this movement.  If the GOP does indeed return to their small government ideals who knows.  They may even win me over.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., on Wednesday spearheaded opposition to a $50 billion expansion of President Bush’s signature program to combat AIDS in Africa and elsewhere overseas.

DeMint, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and five other Republican senators blocked Senate consideration of a bill that would more than triple U.S. aid to nations most stricken by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and to international relief groups helping them.

Charlotte Observer

With the country headed towards a recession, inflation up, energy costs up, and unemployment rising, what in the hell is George Bush thinking sending $50 billion of our money out of this economy and over to a foreign nation?  Not to the mention the fact that all of this foreign aid giving is unconstitutional anyway.  Cut that money out of the budget altogether and lower the deficit.  Praises to DeMint and Burr for watching out for the American taxpayer, on this bill anyway.  (I’m still pissed at Burr for voting for the mortgage bailout)

Three Senators, belonging to the “party of personal responsibility”, the “party of small government”, and the “party of individual accountability” voted to throw away $300 billion of your tax dollars.  Lindsey Graham, Elizabeth Dole, and Richard Burr apparently think that it’s their job to hand your money over to irresponsible home owners, real estate speculators, and big companies like Countrywide Mortgage because they got in over their head.  Wasn’t that nice of them?

Stop paying your mortgage.  You don’t have to.  If you default the nannies in Washington will bail you out.  That’s the message that was sent by every Democrat present for this vote in the Senate and all but nine Republicans who were present in the Senate.  Jim DeMint was the only one of our Senators who voted against this feckless piece of legislation.

Dole is up for reelection in November, which I am sure plaid a role in her decision.  Now she can run around the state, when she actually comes here, and shamelessly pander to all the voters.  Look!  I voted to take other people’s money and give it to you so you can pay for that house you bought that you couldn’t afford in the first place!  Vote for me in November!

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint has endorsed Katrina Shealy over Jake Knotts for a Lexington County state Senate seat, weighing in on a race that has divided local, state and federal politicos.

DeMint’s endorsement follows that of Gov. Mark Sanford. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson has appeared in television commercials endorsing Knotts, while U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham told House and Senate incumbents earlier this year that he would support their campaigns.

The State

Nice.  Very nice.  Shealy must win this race.  That is a shot in the arm this state needs.

This is the difference between politicians like Sanford and DeMint and politicians like Wilson and Graham.  Sanford and DeMint stand on their principles.  Wilson and Graham are party hacks.