Just as I said.
DeMint is out for power, to hell with anyone who gets in his way.

December 08, 2010 12:00 PM
Jim DeMint, Club for Growth come out against Obama-GOP tax-cut deal
By David Neiwert

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Sure, President Obama may have negotiated his tax-cut deal with the
ostensible Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell. But now the
Teabagger King, Sen. Jim DeMint -- the GOP's real Senate leader -- has
come out saying "No dice."

A leading conservative voice in the Senate said Tuesday he will vote
against the tax cut deal President Obama brokered with Republicans in
Congress.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said that he will oppose a potential cloture
vote on the accord and a final vote if the package advances past a
possible filibuster.

"No," the senator said his votes will be on the conservative Hugh Hewitt
Show.

DeMint's stance indicates that a number of Republicans are not yet on
board with the proposal in addition to a seemingly large bloc of
Democrats in the House and Senate.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said earlier Wednesday
he is "pleased" with the deal and hoped that "a large majority of
members of the Republican conference will find this a proposal worth
supporting."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has lead liberal opposition to the plan
in the Senate, reiterated Tuesday that he is prepared to filibuster the
deal after Obama held an afternoon press conference to sell the plan to
skeptics.

The senator explained the timing of his announcement by saying that he
was, "kind of holding my fire to let the liberals blast this thing
first."

DeMint is following the propaganda line being laid out by the Club for
Growth, the right-wing millionaires' political arm, in their attacks on
the deal, as you can see from watching the Club's president, Chris
Chocola, natter on endlessly this morning on Fox about how tax cuts have
supposedly been proven to be the be-all and end-all of economic stimulus
plans (when in fact just the opposite is true).

Dave Weigel thinks that DeMint's not putting that great a stake into
this position, but David Waldman at DKos wonders if it means Obama's
tax-cut deal is effectively defunct:

DeMint said that "the biggest problem" he has with the plan is that it
does not extend the tax cuts permanently.

But would it matter if it did? Last week, DeMint ally Tom Coburn (R-OK)
objected to and sunk another "deal" that "Senate Minority
Leader" Mitch
McConnell (R-KY) thought he'd negotiated and that would have given the
Senate a chance at a vote last Saturday on just such a plan. Why?
Because doing so gives Republicans more opportunities to screw with
Democrats, that's why. Is it true that all Republicans want is to serve
the rich? Well, maybe. But if there's anything they want even more right
now, it's to show the world the sight of Democrats losing as often and
on as many fronts as possible. Who gives a crap about the taxes and
whatnot? That'll all come soon enough.

Is it all just so totally chaotic and unpredictable that there was just
no avoiding it? Well, I certainly haven't considered Mitch McConnell to
be the minority leader for some time now. And you know what? Neither has
McConnell ...

Most likely this is just political theater thrown up for the benefit of
the Tea Partiers. But we'll see how this shakes out in terms of Senate
votes.

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/jim-demint-club-growth-come-out-
agai

--- Xnews/5.04.25