On Thursday morning, Jim DeMint went on "Morning Joe" to pimp his new book -- Now or Never: Saving America from Slightly Higher Taxes on Rich People Economic Collapse -- and peddled a bunch of lies. All of which went completely unchallenged by the panel, of course.

It all started with Scarborough serving up a nice, fat softball to DeMint.

SCARBOROUGH: We were just saying earlier in the show one of the big problems over the past ten years has been the fact that you had a Republican president who doubled the national debt, with a Republican Congress for six years. Now you have a Democratic president who is going to double the debt again...what do we do to stop the bleeding?

DEMINT: Well, that's what the book's all about. 2012 could be our last chance to turn this thing around. The only way the Republicans in the House now can stop the bleeding is if they shut the government down.

Great plan!

And notice: there's absolutely no mention of the fact that taxes are currently at historic lows, and were cut under the previous administration before the country launched two wars, created a massive new domestic security agency -- and fell into the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.

None of that has contributed to the deficit at all. Nope, it's just "spending" that's the problem. Amazing.

And it just got worse.

DEMINT: Now we've got the tension between those who want centralized power, government control of education, health care, transportation, energy -- and Republicans who I think finding their footing around their core principles of we need to devolve power out of Washington, we need to decentralize, because that's what makes America work. [...]

The Democrats are there to beat us. Every policy that they introduce is to centralize power. They are completely incapable of cutting spending because their constiuency is based on dependency on government and those who want more government.

Nice racist dogwhistle at the end there. But how many lies can DeMint cram into two paragraphs?

First, you think someone on the panel would point out to DeMint that government payrolls have dropped by 500,000 jobs under Obama. Isn't that what Teabaggers want? Smaller government?

Also, someone may have pointed out that energy companies and the health care industry are making record profits. Again, kind of an odd thing to happen under a bunch of socialists who want to nationalize everything.

Hey, Brokaw and Meacham. You call yourselves journalists? How can these two let this BS go unchallenged? Awful.

I'm still scratching my head over why Jim DeMint is even the tiniest bit concerned about women discussing -- yes, talking about -- abortion with their health professionals. But DeMint is not only concerned, he's going to do something about it, which is why he introduced a bill banning it.

Via Think Progress:

Now Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), one of the most die-hard anti-choice lawmakers, has jumped on the bandwagon by sneaking a radical anti-abortion amendment onto a completely unrelated piece of legislation. DeMint’s amendment would ban women and their doctors from discussing abortion over the Internet:

Anti-choice Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) just filed an anti-choice amendment to a bill related to agriculture, transportation, housing, and other programs. The DeMint amendment could bar discussion of abortion over the Internet and through videoconferencing, even if a woman’s health is at risk and if this kind of communication with her doctor is her best option to receive care.

Under this amendment, women would need a separate, segregated Internet just for talking about abortion care with their doctors.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said DeMint is essentially mandating “an abortion-only version of Skype.” She points out that a woman with high-risk pregnancy talking to her doctor through video conferencing would have to somehow switch to a separate communications system if abortion came up at all. “It is impractical, ridiculous, and, most importantly, bad for women in rural or remote areas who would not be able to discuss the full set of options with their doctor,” Keenan said.

Basically, if this stupid bill were to actually have a prayer of passing, which it doesn't, women could not use ordinary online channels to communicate with their doctor about their reproductive health. To me that raises all kinds of problems. Who owns the Internet? Who owns the pipes? If a woman communicated via her iPhone to her doctor's iPhone, how would the government have any right to know what they discussed, given that AT&T, Verizon and soon, Sprint, own that air? Moreover, how does a small government conservative reconcile this with big government insertion into women's lives?

I realize that Big Government attitudes arise around the abortion debate from social conservatives, but the construction of this particular measure exceeds even the usual lunatic levels. Is DeMint just wasting time with this bill, or does he plan to use it as some kind of leverage to do other harm to women?

I wonder if DeMint has read The Handmaid's Tale. It would explain his vision for the world he wants to live in.

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Credit: OpenCongress

"Reagan proved," Vice President Dick Cheney famously said in 2002, "deficits don't matter." Not, that is, when a Republican is sitting in the White House. After all, Republicans were silent as the national debt tripled under Ronald Reagan and doubled again under George W. Bush. As it turns out, the same hypocrisy of the GOP's born-again deficit hawks extends to the U.S. debt ceiling as well. After voting seven times to raise the debt ceiling under Bush, Republicans are now promising to just say no to Democrat Barack Obama. And for their political posturing, they risk not only a shutdown of the federal government, but a global economic crisis as well.

In early 2011, the U.S. debt ceiling will have to be bumped up from it current $14.3 trillion level. But for the first time in the nation's history, the emboldened GOP leadership is threatening to block the needed increase and so trigger a default by the government of the United States.

That was the word from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Within hours of Tuesday's midterm voting, McConnell signaled the GOP would oppose boosting the debt ceiling needed to avoid a global economic panic unless there were "strings attached." Appearing on Meet the Press Sunday, South Carolina Senator Jim Demint made clear what strings he had in mind. Asked if he'll support raising the debt ceiling, Demint responded:

"No, I won't. Not unless this debt ceiling is combined with some path to balancing our budget, returning to 2008 spending levels, repealing Obamacare. We have got to demonstrate that we have the resolve to cut spending ... we cannot allow that to go through the Congress without showing the American people that we are going to balance the budget, and we're not going to continue to raise the debt in America."

Meanwhile in the House, Eric Cantor (R-VA), who joined the ranks of Republican spending cut cowards refusing to say how they'd slash the budget, insisted the looming government shutdown and worldwide economic calamity would be all President Obama's fault:

"The chief executive, the president, is as responsible as any in terms of running this government. The president has a responsibility, as much or more so than Congress, to make sure that we are continuing to function in a way that the people want."

Of course, it wasn't always this way with Congressional Republicans. Not when they were taking orders from George W. Bush.

As OpenCongress detailed after January's party-line vote to add $1.9 trillion to the debt ceiling, Republican intransigence began in earnest when Bush left the White House for good. As Donny Shaw documented:

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Sen. Jim DeMint, the crazy leader of the Teabirchers, once again put his stamp on the insane thinking that now dominates the conservative movement. It's Anita Bryant all over again. The hate of teh Gay and single moms isn't nothing new for conservatives (remember Dan Quayle attacking Murphy Brown?) and with their increased media presence, there is no end to their transmitting of far-right fringe ideas, trying to turn them into the mainstream thought of America.

Here's what DeMint had to say:

At a 2004 debate, DeMint declared that openly gay people should not be teaching public school. "We need the folks that are teaching in schools to represent our values," he said. DeMint later added that he "would have given the same answer when asked if a single woman, who was pregnant and living with her boyfriend, should be hired to teach my third grade children."

At the time, the Senate candidate apologized: "[S]ometimes my heart disengages from my head and I say something I shouldn't - and that's what happened yesterday. I clearly said something as a dad that I just shouldn't have said. And I apologize." His campaign manager added that DeMint was raised by a single mother and was not opposed to unwed mothers teaching.

But last week, DeMint said that he had been privately encouraged by reaction to his words.

"[N]o one came to my defense," he said at at a rally. "But everyone would come to me and whisper that I shouldn't back down. They don't want government purging their rights and their freedom to religion."

Jimmy LaSalvia of the gay Republican group GOProud told CBS News that he saw DeMint's comment as a reaffirmation of his original statement -- that gays and unwed mothers should not be allowed to teach children. "I don't know anybody in 2010 who thinks that," he said.

"Sexist bigots like Sen. Jim DeMint don't belong in the United States Congress," said National Organization for Women President Terry O'Neill. "He thinks gay women and men and sexually active single women should be banned from teaching, but he said nothing about sexually active, single straight men."

"It is salt in the wound in our community," said Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "It's irresponsible for Sen. DeMint to reassert this position in this day and age. I would ask him to apologize."

On Lawrence O'Donnell's new show, GOPROUD chairman Andrew Barron, who was once a big supporter of DeMint, now is abandoning him, calling DeMint's remarks morally reprehensible.

Barron:..the reason why this is it for us, and quite honestly should be for anyone in the conservative movement is because these comments are not only outrageous and bizarre, they're morally reprehensible and I think Sen. DeMint has given up the ability to lead on any of the issues that conservatives care about.

Conservatives have been trying to leave social issues in their rear view mirror so they can attack any form of government and taxes on the rich. Unfortunately for Barron, the religious right in this country are not yet willing to give up their gay bashing and their assault on a woman's right to choose. And make no mistake about it, the extreme Christian right do make up a large segment of the Teabirchers. Conservatives like Barron understand that their anti-government, free market messaging gets compromised when this type of hatred spills out into the airwaves and as much as Barron wants to delude himself that DeMint is now a fringer, he is nothing of the kind. He's a perfect example of the Teabirchers in action.

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Sigh. Remember the tea bagger fear that Sharia law was coming to the US? Remind me again, how are the religious right of this country different? Okay, maybe Jim DeMint isn't recommending stoning...but really, how much longer do you think that will take?

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) attempted to convince pastors that economic issues are moral issues at the Greater Freedom Rally at a church in Spartanburg, South Carolina yesterday, imploring them to help conservatives retake Congress in November.

In addition to reiterating anti-choice talking points on abortion and backing "traditional marriage," according to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, the senator went further and "said if someone is openly homosexual, they shouldn't be teaching in the classroom and he holds the same position on an unmarried woman who's sleeping with her boyfriend -- she shouldn't be in the classroom."

Controversy over DeMint's position on this issue first arose in 2004 during a Senate debate, when he was asked whether he agreed with the state party's platform that said openly gay teachers should be barred from teaching public school. DeMint said he agreed with that position because government shouldn't be endorsing certain behaviors.

Interesting that DeMint feels that women should be forced to have their rapist's baby but also thinks she should not be able to teach, because she is a bad role model. Yet more proof that Senator Jackass simply does not think about the ramifications of his righteous bumper sticker mentality at all.

Politico's idea of news: John McCain, Twitter genius. Because it's pure genius to tweet stuff like this:

But they don't stop there.

But it’s not just McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, who’s the GOP standard-bearer for social media. In a social media game mastered by the campaign of Barack Obama, the study found Republicans have “struck back,” with GOP senators averaging more than 5.5 IQ points higher than their Democratic counterparts.

Of the seven senators who scored “genius” social media rankings, four were Republicans: McCain — the top tweeter, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and John Cornyn of Texas.

DeMint is a tea party force, and Brown rode significant grass-roots tea party support to upset Martha Coakley for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat last winter. Cornyn is the head of the Senate GOP campaign organization.

Wow. A Tea Party force. And a Twitter genius. Evidently the authors of the official academic study of Senators' Twitter use didn't take the gaming aspect into account when they came up with this study. Nor did they particularly care what the content was.

But hey -- props to the staffer behind the McCain account, who at least knows enough about trolling to get Politico's attention, eh? They don't really think John McCain tweets from his iPhone do they? He barely understands his Blackberry.

Sigh. ABC's This Week can't quit you or the word "exclusive," John McCain. And the dulcet wingnut tones of DeMint/Lieberman on Fox News Sunday will make yer Sabbath hangover feel like a Swedish massage by comparison.

NBC is celebrating Independence from Great Britain Day this year by broadcasting tennis from Great Britain. At least they have an actual "exclusive" on it.

ABC's "This Week" - EXCLUSIVE Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

NBC's "Meet the Press" and "The Chris Matthews Show" - Pre-empted by coverage of Wimbledon tennis.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Said Tayeb Jawad, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States; Reps. John Boccieri, D-Ohio, Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Mike Coffman, R-Colo.

"Fox News Sunday" - Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of fund set up to compensate Gulf oil spill victims.

What catches your eyes and ears this morning?

This just goes to show you: You just never know what's going to happen in an election. Anti-establishment fever? Who knows? What an intriguing story:

COLUMBIA, S.C. — An unemployed military veteran who raised no funds and put up no campaign website shocked South Carolina's Democratic Party leadership by capturing the nomination Tuesday to face Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint in November.

With nearly all precincts reporting, Alvin Greene, 32, commanded 59 percent of the vote against 41 percent for former four-term state lawmaker Vic Rawl, 64, who had raised about $186,000 and had to abruptly scrap a late-week fundraiser for the fall.

State Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler said voters unfamiliar with either candidate may have voted alphabetically for Greene over Rawl.

"As far as I know, he never showed up at anything. Vic Rawl has been campaigning everywhere from the time he filed," she said.

Rawl said he was disappointed.

"I would've liked very much to be a candidate against Jim DeMint," Rawl said, describing his sole primary rival as something of a mystery. "I never saw him. I've still never met him."

As for Greene, he couldn't explain it either but thanked voters in a state numb with high unemployment and said: "Let's continue to make history and get South Carolina back to work."

Greene said he spent a total of 13 years in the Air Force and Army before leaving the Army in August.

Late Tuesday, stunned Democratic leaders in South Carolina struggled to comprehend how the little-seen candidate upstaged Rawl, a moderate Southern Democrat they viewed as their far stronger bet against DeMint. Rawl's lengthy resume lists four past state House terms and former posts as prosecutor, circuit court judge and more.

Five New Freaks

The Nation provides the details about five new GOP Senators. Here's a condensed version:

Tom Coburn has proposed the death penalty for abortion doctors.

Jim DeMint has said gays shouldn't be able to teach or adopt.

Mel Martinez fears "homosexual extremists."

John Thune illegally intimidated American Indian voters.

David Vitter is a "polite David Duke."

Digby told she watched Pam Stout, a tea party activist who was interviewed on David Letterman the other night. If anyone in the media is still confused by who and what ideas the Tea Partiers represent, they should watch the entire Letterman interview. (And the media should get a copy of our new book when it's released in June). Pam is hep to the fact that the Tea Party wants to take over the Republican Party, because a third party wouldn't help their cause and hey, they are arch-conservatives. Her hero is Jim DeMint and she wants us to leave Big Business alone and believes people really want to live off welfare checks. So, there you go.

This is part 2 of the interview. Digby has all three embedded in her post.

Digby nails it:

Watch the videos here if you have the time. She was the best tea party representative I've ever seen --- a perfect face for the angry Bircher club to which she also belongs, the Friends of Liberty.

I was blown away by this interview and frankly, a little bit chilled. She's mild-mannered, reasonable, utterly sincere, decent and true. Yet, she watches Beck because he "makes her think" and she reveres Jim DeMint, the most radical of all the rightwing Senators. This lovely woman believes in the raw, violent politics of the Hobbesian jungle in which it's every man for himself. I'm sure she doesn't see it that way.

Her politics aren't grounded in real life but in abstract concepts. She certainly doesn't seem defensive or even aware that her political heroes are considered radical extremists. But then if you only watch Fox news, listen to talk radio and live in the town known for its proximity to Ruby Ridge and the Aryan Nations compound you probably don't realize that your views are not held by the majority of Americans.

People like Pam show us how powerful the right-wing noise machine is. She's clearly living in a Fox News Universe; people like this have been converted to believing in essentially an alternative universe. Grover Norquist would be very happy after he watches this because he believes that the more anti-government people that are created (and believe me, he helped create a great deal of them), the more votes the conservative movement gets, all of which helps to eradicate the left entirely, which is their ultimate goal.

The NY Times had a great piece featuring Auntie Pam some months ago (and Dave discussed it here). Her views resemble the John Birch Society, only she has no clue that's where she is politically.

The Future

Pam Stout wakes each morning, turns on Fox News, grabs coffee and an Atkins bar, and hits the computer. She is the hub of a rapidly expanding and highly viral political network, keeping a running correspondence with her 400 members in Sandpoint, state and national Tea Party leaders and other conservative activists.

Mrs. Stout forwards along petitions to impeach Mr. Obama; petitions to audit the Federal Reserve; petitions to support Sarah Palin; appeals urging defiance of any federal law requiring health insurance; and on and on.

--

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