From today’s “America’s Morning News” with John McCaslin and Melanie Morgan, a stark reminder that the conservative base’s favorite senator has never let collegiality keep him from speaking his mind. Quoth a Politico profile in January:

DeMint, up for reelection in 2010, is genial by nature and says he tried to work within the Capitol’s seniority system during his three terms in the House and his first two years in the Senate.

But he has learned, he said, that lawmakers in both parties “only respond to pain.”

“They don’t respond to good policy, persuasion, being nice. I’ve tried it all,” he said. “There’s nobody nicer than I am.”

In a chamber where relationship building is seen as paramount to legislative successes, DeMint said that “club friendships [have become] more important than the party and where we’re going as a country.”

No worries about any club friendships with Her Royal Highness after this, I’d imagine. Exit question: What does he mean when he says the military pays America’s civilian leadership a “courtesy” by showing deference to them?