DeMint and the Culture of Washington

[Valin]

Ricochet:

Rick Wilson

12/7/12

 

The reaction to Jim DeMint's departure from the Senate to the Heritage Foundation has been proportional to one's distance from the Beltway and involvement with the political and media culture of Washington, DC.Conservatives are overjoyed. In the Acela Corridor, the reaction was shock that anyone would leave the Senate under any circumstances (other than feet-first).

 

Those in this first category don't understand what DeMint grasped the day he got there: the Senate is broken, and the my-honorable-friend culture there is destructive, false, and ultimately doomed. It's why he showed little inclination to please the D.C. media, or to seek out the "strange new respect" headlines that come when Republicans walk back their principles. He was never going to play the game in the Senate to advance a legislative career. (The phrase “legislative career” is gagworthy, but all too common an aspiration.)

 

(Snip)

 

Jim DeMint's decision was that of a man who knows he must move from one point of leverage to the next if he is going to advance the conservative agenda. DeMint helped recruit and support a cohort of conservative stars in the Senate ... in several cases in direct opposition to the NRSC and the D.C. political class.

 

For the last 20 years, Republicans have lost the D.C. deal-making game more times than they've won. The moment they start wondering how they'll look in the New York Times editorial pages they enter into a kind of masochistic trance, almost welcoming the abuse and ridicule. The moment they fall in to the trap of wanting to be seen as bipartisan statesmen is the moment the Democrats smile behind their hands and send for the torturers. DeMint never did, and for that he deserves credit.

 

(Snip)