DeMint: I’ll leave the GOP if they go back to big-spending policies

Translation: We’re going to hold leadership accountable. Jim DeMint tells Sean Hannity, “I don’t want to be in Washington another six years and watch the Republican Party betray the trust of the American people again.”  He threatens to leave the GOP if that comes to pass.  Is Jim DeMint catching third-party fever?  Not quite, but he’s being clear about the consequences of failure:

This isn’t aimed at stoking calls for a third party; it’s a warning shot to current Republican leadership in Congress. Conservatives looking ahead to a Republican-controlled House and potentially a Republican-controlled Senate wonder whether the right leadership is in place to make good on the promises the GOP has made to conservative activists about reducing spending and reducing federal encroachment on individual and state authority. The conservative caucus in both chambers will be bolstered in this election, and DeMint is warning Mitch McConnell that falling back into the bad habits of K Street Projects and the spending of 2001-6 will result in a major fracture on the Right, and that he doesn’t feel particularly inclined to stop it if it happens.

For a more positive approach to this issue, I asked Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) on my show yesterday whether voters can trust current GOP leadership. Pence ran a memorable challenge to John Boehner for House Minority Leader in 2006 after the midterm debacle that year, on the basis that the caucus needed a small-government direction. If anyone has reason for skepticism, it’s Pence, but he told me yesterday that he had a lot of confidence that current leadership had learned the hard lessons and is prepared to deliver on their promises:

Either way, both men promise an accounting if leadership goes the wrong direction — and both men are entirely correct in doing so.

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