Today, in a move that surprised many, Jim DeMint, the über-conservative Republican Senator from South Carolina announced he's resigning his U.S. Senate seat to become the head of the Heritage Foundation.
One of our favorite Demint audio bits.
That's the story of Jim Demint. Someone so dumb he said gay people, unmarried people, and pregnant women shouldn't teach in public school, is now going to be the highest-paid head of a "think tank" in DC. DeMint is leaving an organization that no longer functions to join one that really shouldn’t function.
Don't be crying for DeMint though. He'll be inheriting the top paid lobbying job in Washington - at over a million dollars a year.
So we're not cryin' for Demint. In fact, Scott Keyes and the folks at Think Progress put our thoughts into words perfectly, with their list of 11 reasons why we should all be glad Jim Demint is leaving the Senate:
Susan B. Anthony - Important
enough for a coin, but not
for a museum, according to
Jim Demint.
- Demint pushed a bill outlawing the discussion of abortion over the Internet. Last year, DeMint proposed an amendment to an unrelated bill that would have barred a woman and her doctor from discussing abortion over the internet, even if her health was at risk and tele-conferencing was the most feasible option to receive care.
- Blocked creation of the National Women’s History Museum. Along with fellow arch-conservative Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), DeMint placed a hold on a 2010 bill to sell land near the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC in order to create the National Women’s History Museum. Coburn justified their move to block the museum by noting that there already exist museums for “quilters” and “cowgirls”.
- “Willing” to cause “serious disruptions” in the economy in order to secure draconian cuts. During last year’s debt ceiling showdown, DeMint appeared on Fox Business and said that, despite the fact that not raising the debt ceiling would cause “serious disruptions,” he was “willing to do that” in order to get major cuts to social programs like Medicare and Social Security.
