• Jim DeMint,  Mitt Romney,  President 2012

    President 2012: Mitt Romney Wins New Hampshire But….

    Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney surrounded by his family points towards supporters at the Romney for President New Hampshire primary night victory party at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, N.H., Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012

    Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has won the GOP Presidential primary election in New Hampshire tonight.

    Mitt Romney cruised to a solid victory in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night, picking up steam from his first-place finish in the lead-off Iowa caucuses and firmly establishing himself as the man to beat for the Republican presidential nomination.

    “Tonight we made history,” Romney told cheering supporters before pivoting to a stinging denunciation of President Barack Obama. “The middle class has been crushed … our debt is too high and our opportunities too few,” he declared – ignoring the rivals who had been assailing him for weeks and making clear he intends to be viewed as the party’s nominee in waiting after only two contests.

    His Republican rivals said otherwise, looking ahead to South Carolina on Jan. 21 as the place to stop the former Massachusetts governor. Already, several contenders and committees supporting them had put down heavy money to reserve time for television advertising there.

    But, will Romney be able to seal the deal in South Carolina?

    It remains to be seen, but it increasingly looks like Romney is on a roll to the nomination. In fact, conservative South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint has said that he expects Romney to win in South Carolina.

    If the GOP conservative field stays as large, they cannot help but split the vote sufficiently, so that Romney wins.

    But, stay tuned…. the negative ads in South Carolina are ready to roll….

  • Jim DeMint,  President 2012,  Rick Perry

    President 2012: Romney NOW going to Attend DeMint’s South Carolina Forum

    Jen Rubin has the news.

    Right Turn has learned that, after several weeks of schedule adjustment, Mitt Romney will now appear at the candidate forum hosted by Sen. Jim DeMint in South Carolina. The Romney camp dismisses the suggestion that this is in response to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s rise in the polls. Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul tells me: “We’re pleased we were able to arrange our schedule so that Gov. Romney can attend Labor Day events in both New Hampshire and South Carolina.”

    With Texas Governor Rick Perry swamping Mitt Romney in the polls, Romney had to make an appearance. Why, he did not previously committ in South Carolina is anyone’s guess?

    Remember these two will face off with the rest of the field, including Michele Bachmann next Wednesday at the Reagan Presidential Library here in California. The debate will be televised on MSNBC at 8 PM Eastern.

  • GOP,  Jim DeMint

    Video: Senator Jim DeMint Warns Republicans If They Support Debt Ceiling Increase

    Of course, there are conditions, but Senator DeMint has pretty much laid down the gauntlet or should I say litmus test for the GOP.

    Plus, the South Carolina Senator has the PAC money to back it up.

    Conservative firebrand Sen. Jim DeMint has a message to fellow Republicans in Congress: If you support increasing the debt ceiling without first passing a balanced budget amendment and massive across-the-board spending cuts, you’re gone — destined to be swept out of Congress by a wave of voter anger.

    “Based on what I can see around the country,” DeMint, R-S.C., said in an interview for the ABC News Subway Series, “not only are those individuals gone, but I would suspect the Republican Party would be set back many years.

    “It would be the most toxic vote,” DeMint said. “I can tell you if you look at the polls, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, they do not think we should increase the debt limit.”

    DeMint is not just talking political analysis here. He has a significant fundraising base and has shown a willingness to use his campaign money to support or oppose fellow Republicans.

    DeMint will use that political muscle to oppose fellow Republicans who don’t stand firm on the debt ceiling issue. He said he will not support any candidate for Congress — incumbent or challenger — who does not sign a pledge promising not to vote for a debt limit increase without first passing a balanced budget amendment, making deep spending cuts and putting strict limits on future government spending. The same rule applies to presidential candidates.

    But, the GOP will have to be careful, because I can foresee the Obama Administration scapegoating the GOP when they refuse to pay out Social Security and military payroll checks when and if the debt limit ceiling crisis hits this summer.

    There will be some deals made to avert a crisis, but the Democrats are lirking in the weeds to inflict maximum damage to the Republicans.

  • Jim DeMint,  Mitt Romney,  President 2012

    President 2012: Will Senator Jim DeMint Endorse Mitt Romney for President?

    Well, Senator DeMint (R-South Carolina) did in 2008, but now there are conditions?

    Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) “would never consider” endorsing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for president again in 2012 unless Romney repudiates the health reforms he sought as governor, a source close to DeMint said Thursday.

    A source close to the conservative icon emphasized that, despite comments to The Hill indicating that Romney shouldn’t shoulder all the political blame for the Massachusetts healthcare plan, DeMint wouldn’t endorse Romney again unless he admits the plan was mistaken.

    “It’s obvious Jim was just trying to be nice to the guy he backed over McCain, as many conservatives did in 2008,” the source said. “But he would never consider backing Romney again unless he admits that his Massachusetts healthcare plan was a colossal mistake.”

    These quotes from an unnamed source came after the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin spanked DeMint in this piece this morning.

    So has DeMint suddenly decided to make peace with the individual mandate? Perhaps, but that would be a monumental and abrupt shift in his thinking. No, this is pure, opportunistic politics. It’s the sort of thing DeMint normally decries, to the cheers of his base. But Romney backed DeMint and now DeMint is giving Romney cover.

    That’s unsurprising in politics, but it’s a major problem for a pol who has carved his identity on principled opposition to nearly every compromise with the left. For DeMint to give Romney a pass on an individual mandate negotiated with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy is a high-risk proposition for DeMint.

    His backers and the Republican base more generally are not going to buy the excuse DeMint has offered on RomneyCare. Romney is going to be savaged by the right, and from those very people who have given DeMint his base of support. So the question for DeMint is: Is he willing to risk his own conservative street cred to support a candidate who will be the target of his base’s ire?

    And, also spanked by Phil Klein over at the American Spectator.

    But beyond being ignorant, DeMint’s comments are dangerous. I’ve long argued that the Massachusetts health care plan is not only toxic to Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy, but it could prove toxic to the entire Republican Party. If Romney is excused for crafting and signing the Massachusetts health care plan, it significantly undermines the case against ObamaCare and weakens the effort to repeal it. The reason is that opposition to ObamaCare will start to look increasingly political and less about principle. It’s true that a state mandate doesn’t raise the same Constitutional questions as the federal mandate, but it still is government forcing an individual to purchase a product. These comments are especially dangerous coming from DeMint, who is known as a leading conservative and ObamaCare opponent. Let’s hope it’s an isolated incident and not part of a broader trend.

    Mitt Romney should NOT be the Republican Party’s Presidential nominee in 2012. RomneyCare and his numerous flip-flops over the decades make him untrustworthy and not worthy of my vote.

    Period.

    His nomination will undercut the repeal of ObamaCare which should be one of the GOP’s first priorities. ObamaCare will ruin American health care, bust the budget wide open and imperil America’s survival.

    As far as Jim DeMint is concerned. He is an OPPORTUNISTIC POL not a Tea Party activist.

    Remember how DeMint has promised Indiana Senator Richard Lugar he would not help fund a primary challenge to him in 2012. I mean, Lugar is clearly a RINO, who is old and votes way too left for the modern day GOP. But, DeMint will sit on his hands.

    Remember when DeMint funded Chuck DeVore in California against a conservative Carly Fiorina when DeVore had absolutely NO chance of winning?

    DeMint is a conservative Senator, but he is a POL like all of the rest and when he supports/endorses Romney, it will just be another example.