I guess you could call former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint “Mr. Conservative.” He left the Senate to become President of the Heritage Foundation, which everyone knows is the premier Republican think tank in the country. Heritage was there for Reagan when he won in 1980, and they’ve been there ever since.
As a Senator, DeMint was hard core. He wanted to repeal the 16th Amendment, abolish the IRS, institute a national sales Tax, and pass a balanced budget amendment. He wasn’t afraid of taking tough stances, or votes.
So when Rep. Ken Buck was looking for someone to write a preface to his new book, Drain the Swamp, you can see why he turned to DeMint. The guy’s fearless. He’s Captain America, and if the House Republican leadership doesn’t like it they can lump it.
The Preface is effusive, and with good reason. But here’s how it ends, “You will learn the truth from Drain the Swamp and find out how American citizens can elect and support congressmen and senators who will keep their oath to defend the Constitution and will serve the best interest of the American people.” Pure poetry, isn’t it?
In other words, we need to elect good people. Poppycock, and DeMint knows it. How many good people have we got back there right now? 30 out of 435? How long is it going to take us to elect so many good people we have a majority? Maybe in the 2030 midterms?
The truth, as Buck tells it and DeMint well knows, is that the States are going to have to use Article V in order to stage an intervention and break Congress’ addiction to spending. Congress is too far gone to ever reform itself.
But DeMint can’t come out and say it, even in the preface of a book that explicitly calls for it. Why? Because the Koch brothers’ money has purchased the hostility of Heritage to Article V.
Their father was a Bircher, and hated Article V, so they do too. As a result, there is no conservative institutional support for Article V, aside from the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is controlled by State Legislators, not the Kochs.
Some reporter ought to ask DeMint, “Do you support an Article V BBA?” If he says no, ask him why. He has no answer. There is none, other than an old conspiracy theory about a runaway convention. Stuff and nonsense.
The Democratic Speaker of the Colorado House and the Republican Senate President each gets to name three Commissioners to Phoenix Convention of States, and must agree on a tie breaking, seventh Commissioner, which in most States will be a non-legislator, or citizen Commissioner. It can be anyone they can agree on. If they agreed on Tom Brady, then he can be a Commissioner from Colorado.
I hope they agree on Ken Buck.
reaganproject.com 