Is Jim DeMint the next Jesse Helms?


Three reasons the South Carolina senator could be on track to become — as Helms was famously known — the most conservative member of the U.S. Senate.

1. HE’S IDEOLOGICALLY RIGID

DeMint, like Helms, is an ideological purist who holds fast to conservative principles such as low spending, low taxes, deregulation and strong national defense.

DeMint also, like Helms, doesn’t mind antagonizing fellow Republicans who drift leftward on those core principles. DeMint emerged as a leader in the Senate during his fight to sink illegal immigration reform, splitting with much of the Republican Party to kill a plan designed by President Bush.

“I spent a number of years as a team player, trying to work with our leadership, only to find that our leadership was taking us in the wrong direction,â€