Would Sen. DeMint Back A Primary Challenger Against Sen. Graham?

Since President Obama took office, Sen. Jim DeMint has stepped forward as the conservative leader in the Senate.  Appealing to tea party protesters, DeMint started the Senate Conservatives Fund to elect conservative candidates to the U.S. Senate.  The group's website defiantly states: "We do not support liberal Republicans."

During his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, DeMint stressed that he would not hesitate to support conservative primary challengers to incumbent Republicans that don't meet his standards, citing his support of Pat Toomey's challenge against then-Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (PA).

DeMINT: When Republican Senators don't do the things that they say they believe, voters should have the choice of a new Republican. A real Republican. 

This raises an interesting question.  Would Sen. DeMint back a conservative primary challenger against his fellow South Carolinian Sen. Lindsey Graham? 

While Graham is surely a conservative (he has received an 89.68 lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union) he has often strayed from party orthodoxy and worked with Democrats:

• Last year he coauthored a cap-and-trade bill with Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry, for which he was officially censured by various county Republican Party committees throughout South Carolina.

• He supports President Obama's goal of closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

• He supported comprehensive immigration reform legislation authored by Sen. Ted Kennedy.

• He was a member of the "Gang of 14" which worked with Democrats to confirm certain Bush judicial nominees. 

Graham isn't up for reelection until 2014, so we won't know DeMint's plan for quite some time.  What we do know is that DeMint has no qualms about aggressively targeting his Republican brethren in the Senate.  If there was a Republican Senator who would work to defeat their counterpart of the same party, it is Sen. Jim DeMint.  Sen. Graham has major cause for concern.

Their Own Worst Enemy

The far right's demand for ideological purity shows how dangerous the Tea Party movement is for the Republican Party.  Their goals are simply not the same.

The GOP's political infrastructure should understand that if they wish to ever govern again, they need to win elections to become the majority.  DeMint and the Tea Partiers are not concerned with obtaining a majority -- their only aim is to ensure every Republican is as conservative as they are.

During his CPAC speech, DeMint perfectly spelled out the dangers for the GOP when he said, "I'd rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who believe in the principles of freedom than 60 who don't believe in anything."

Well, good luck with that.