Since last November’s elections gave Democrats control of Congress, DeMint has ascended from virtual obscurity to leader of the most conservative bloc of Senate Republicans.

That role was boosted this year when DeMint’s GOP peers chose him to head the Senate Steering Committee, a Republican caucus of conservative firebrands co-founded in 1974 by then-U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina.

DeMint’s “this is amnesty” dismissal of a bipartisan immigration bill in May ignited a nationwide conservative firestorm that burned his fellow S.C. Republican, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, discomfited other GOP senators — and led to the measure’s defeat.

Both before and since the immigration imbroglio, DeMint has angered veteran senators from both parties.

DeMint, 55, has blocked a series of spending bills in an effort to rid them of “earmarks” — funding for lawmakers’ pet projects, often inserted anonymously and at the very end of the legislative process.

“There’s some things that I feel like have to be done, and I’m not in the mood to wait until the next election,” DeMint said in an interview. “We as Republicans have to act like Republicans. Earmark reform is a key part of our agenda and needs to stay in the forefront.”

The National Journal, an influential political magazine in Washington, published a long cover story about DeMint last month.

Entitled “Hard Right,” the profile detailed how DeMint aides scrub virtually every piece of legislation moving through the Senate, looking for clauses that violate core conservative principles of small government, low taxes and free enterprise.

The State

There is a lot more in the article on the accomplishments Jim DeMint has made in just two and a half years in the Senate.  He sticks to what he knows is right and doesn’t take any crap from his phony “conservative” colleagues.  He is a model to every Republican in Washington and they would mold themselves in his image we would have no problem taking back Congress and keeping it for many prosperous decades to come.

I guess I am on the Lindsey Graham bulletin email list now since I sent an email to his office last month stating I would not vote for him next year due to his support of amnesty. I received this today regarding his latest immigration bill he has submitted. This isn’t the whole letter, as it is rather long, but this portion is the real meat and potatoes of it.

I am pleased to report last week our nation took a major step forward in
securing our nation’s borders. We began the process of addressing our
illegal immigration problem one piece at-a-time. The Senate, by a vote
of 89-1, accepted an amendment I introduced to spend $3 billion on
Border Security and Interior Enforcement.

Many of these provisions were contained in the Senate immigration bill
as well as the Graham-Kyl-Martinez amendment which were debated last
month.

My proposal — the Graham Amendment — provides and requires:

• The U.S. government to establish and demonstrate operational control
  over 100 percent of the international land and maritime borders between
  the U.S. and Mexico .
• Funding to construct the 700 miles of fencing required by the Secure
  Fence Act.
• Funding for the hiring, training, and placing on duty 23,000 Customs
  and Border Patrol agents.
• Permanently ends ‘Catch and Release’ by providing the resources
  necessary to detain up to 45,000 aliens per day.
• Funding for 300 miles of vehicle barriers at the border.
• Funding for 105 ground-based radar and camera towers.
• Funding for the deployment of 4 unmanned aerial vehicles at the
  border.
• Funding to handle the deportation of absconders and visa overstays.