On Monday, I noted a story about conservative Senator Jim DeMint and his new effort to build a policital action committee dedicated to electing conservatives to Congress. Today, Ed Morrissey has more on the new PAC, called the Senate Conservatives Fund.
There could be a concern among Republicans that the SCF is going to end up in direct competition with the Republican party though DeMint says he will make every effort to avoid that sort of conflict. I don’t know how, exactly, he’s going to do that. He founded the PAC because the GOP was incapable of getting the sort of help to conservative candidates that they need. It’s ongoing mission has to bring it into conflict with the Republicans.
For example, when Pat Toomey ran against Arlen Specter a couple of years ago, the party lined up behind Specter even though Toomey was clearly the conservative candidate. Thanks to the party elite, including the conservative Rick Santorum, Spectre won and where are we now? He’s stumping for yet another set of hearings into professional baseball. That’s exactly what we want our Republican Senators doing, right? If DeMint’s PAC had been up and running then, there’s no way it could have avoided conflict with the rest of the party.
And that’s fine with me. I want conservatives to support each other, even if that means running afoul of the party honchos. I want them to defend conservative principles instead of fretting about what’s best for their continued political career. I think DeMint’s PAC will do just that, so I’m behind it.
Tags: Arlen Specter, Conservatives, Jim DeMint, Pat Toomey, Republicans
