Jim DeMint's Lonely Battle Against Unemployment Insurance And His Crusade To Further Shrink The GOP Pup Tent

If anyone still doubts the teeny weeny Republican pup tent is now basically housing a mental ward for the criminally insane, you're not paying attention. Yesterday the teabaggers' chief spokesman in the U.S. Senate, radical right South Carolina secessionist Jim DeMint, made a spectacle out of himself twice-- before sundown. At noon Harry Reid decided it was time to shut down the mean-spirited Republican filibuster of H.R. 3548, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act. Embarrassed by their own efforts to screw thousands of American workers left without a means to support themselves and feed their families, every single Republican but one bucked and voted for cloture. Even the worst hard core obstructionists who oppose everything-- like Vitter, Burr, Coburn, Inhofe and Sessions-- couldn't justify this outrageous, destructive behavior. Yes, and the one vote to oppose extending unemployment insurance belonged to Jim DeMint, who own state is one of the hardest hit by unemployment of any in the country.

He then rushed from the Senate floor to announce to California Republican voters-- in time to mess up the news cycle of failed corporate hack Carly Fiorina as she announced her bid for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate-- that he had found a teabagger to support. Recall that it was DeMint who first started the right-wing derailment of Charlie Crist's placid march to the Senate several months ago, when he endorsed a little known right-wing extremist, Marco Rubio. DeMint was also one of the Republicans to destroy the GOP's chance to hold onto the NY-23 House seat by driving the popular Republican candidate out of the race and getting behind a hapless, clueless extremist from another district who lost a seat that the GOP had held onto since before John McCain was riding his burro around his native Panama.

But just when DeMint goes into out-of-control mode, his teabagger colleagues are threatening to burn down the whole Republican Establishment if they don't get their way-- one popular teabagger site declared NY-23 "a huge victory for the conservative base... I made it very clear from the very beginning that the goal all along was not to see Hoffman win, but see Scozzafava lose." So how does the besieged GOP Establishment react? They're all hiding under their beds shivering with fear.

With Republicans grappling with the fallout of an intra-party battle that may have cost them a House seat, the head of the Senate Republican campaign effort is making a pledge that may ease some of the anger being directed at the party establishment.

"We will not spend money in a contested primary," Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the NRSC, told ABC News in a telephone interview today.

There's no incentive for us to weigh in," said Cornyn (R-TX). "We have to look at our resources... We're not going to throw money into a [primary] race leading up to the election."

Cornyn said his pledge extends to races for open Senate seats-- not incumbents who may face primaries next year. The NRSC so far has endorsed candidates in 4 open Senate seats-- Florida, Missouri, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Cornyn's commitment is most immediately relevant in Florida, where the NRSC's candidate, Gov. Charlie Crist, is facing an aggressive challenge on his right..."

So just as the Club For Growth is contemplating endorsing Rubio, the NRSC, which lured Crist into the race with promises of total support, is abandoning him, further damaging his already crashing chances to win the nomination and hold the seat for the Republicans.

And speaking of Florida, Ginny Brown-Waite is generally considered a far right loon and a crackpot on a level with Virginia Foxx, Mean Jean Schmidt, Patrick McHenry and Michele Bachmann. She even broke with the Florida Republican Party and endorsed extremist Mario Rubio against Gov. Charlie Crist. So you'd think the teabaggers would love her, right? Wrong. She endorsed Dede Scozzafava too and that is the new standard for purism apparently. A psychotic teabagger, Jason Sager, is sliming her and giving her a primary challenge. I hope an electable progressive Democrat who doesn't live at home with his mother jumps into this race.

Now, back to DeMint and his teabagging in the Senate. Yesterday while trying to stir up some interest in DeVore, DeMint "explicitly suggested his endorsement was a shot 'against' GOP leaders."

DeMint explained his endorsement of the conservative candidate, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, by citing “Chuck’s willingness to stand up against his own party leaders.”

Emphasis mine. Fiorina is the choice of Republican Party leaders, and newly emboldened conservatives-- backed now by DeMint-- are hoping to turn Fiorina into their next casualty, a la Dede Scozzafava.

“We need to shake up the Republican Party,” DeMint added. He also used some suggestive language to suggest that DeVore would be a reliable foe of the GOP establishment: “He’s gonna join the country, and not the club.”

That’s pretty strong stuff, particularly in the context of the Doug Hoffman debacle. DeMint is not just saying his pick is the better candidate or that he is truer to Republican principles. He’s essentially endorsing the Palin/tea party brigade’s explicit, open warfare on the GOP leadership and establishment.