Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and all the rest need to watch their backs as they make their thinly disguised runs for their party's presidential nomination (make that "anorexically disguised). While they might present themselves as the champions of Dark Ages Republicans, there is someone else out there who personifies everything the national GOP stands for. It can be completely summed up in three words: "Destroy Obama's Presidency."
The leader of that band is not Palin nor Gingrich, shameless partisans though they may be. The Obstructionist-in-Chief title goes to Jim DeMint, (R) (of course), South Carolina. You had probably figured that out, now hadn't you?.
This is the guy, after all, who had summed up his view of health care reform as nothing more than an opportunity to severely weaken the president. That's it. He made no bones about it. His exact words were, "If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."
As much as that endeared him to the Base's basest instincts, Jim Demint wasn't about to rest on those laurels. After all, almost no Republican is backing health care reform. So DeMint realizes he must always come up with other ways to stand out by standing in the way. And he has found quite a few.
For instance, as the nation trembles after that near disaster when a a crazed Al Qaeda terrorist almost blew a filled airliner out of the sky over Detroit, there is a furious debate about the massive protective apparatus and how it allowed him to so easily waltz right past its ridiculously uncoordinated barriers.
Our politicians are falling all over themselves demanding answers and solutions from those in charge. And rightfully so. Shouldn't we be hearing from the head of the Transportation Security Administration?
The problem is, there is no head of the TSA. Only an Acting head while the administration's nominee is being held up by a Senator. And who would that be? Yup. Jim DeMint.
It seems he is not satisfied that the White House selection to be TSA chief would not do enough to prevent unions from organizing those who must enforce the misery at airport terminal gates.
Union-bashing is always a tried and true way to win the hearts of any conservative. So it's hardly surprise that Mr. DeMint is out there manning the partisan barricades. It's a cheap shot it's true, but it's a shot, aimed at Demint's one target: the Democrats.
Never mind that we need leadership for the nearly impossible job of staying ahead of terrorist crazies. Apparently that doesn't matter to someone who has only one focus: his political ambitions.
Mr. Gingrich, Ms. Palin and all the rest should not forget that before JIm DeMint got into politics, he was in the market research biz, where the first rule is "Whatever Sells, No Matter What." Now he is his product and he's obviously selling himself as the next president. No matter what.