Senator Jim DeMint's Stark Warning to House Republicans

The good news is that the House passed the DeMint - endorsed Cut, Cap, and Balance (CCB) resolution. The bad news is that the odds of it getting through the Senate are nil. Obama would veto it if it magically got to his desk anyway. There's more bad news, unfortunately. The McConnell / Gang of six plan looks like it just might pass both Houses. DeMint is warning House Republicans that if the McConnell plan gets through the House, there will be enormous consequences for the Republican Party - it's possible extinction.

Via The Daily Caller:

Republican South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint said Tuesday that the McConnell back-up plan on the debt limit could be the downfall for Republicans.

“I think for Republicans to cave on this after what happened with the Continuing Resolution, again, I think you’d see a deterioration of base of support, and a whole lot of third party activity,” said DeMint at a meeting at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. “I’m afraid this is make or break time for Republicans.”

DeMint’s comments came in response to a question about the back-up plan being worked on by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. When it was first introduced by McConnell last week, the plan caused a fierce backlash among conservatives

But while the back-up option is by all accounts gaining traction, DeMint warned it could be the undoing of the Grand Old Party.

“It’d be suicidal for Republicans in the House to vote for it,” said DeMint.

The Senator, who is a conservative hero across the country, was one of the original signers of the Cut, Cap, Balance pledge, and then one of the co-sponsors when it was put into legislative language. But on Tuesday, DeMint not only blasted moderate debt-limit deals, he had harsh words for the entire process as well.

Conservatives began wincing as soon as the words of the plan came out of McConnell's mouth. We doubled over after learning that McConnell is actually working with Majority Leader Harry Reid on the particulars.

According to the AP, a surprising number of Republican Senators are getting behind the McConnell plan, which actually calls for more than $1 Trillion in new taxes:

President Barack Obama and a startling number of Republican senators lauded a deficit-reduction plan put forward earlier in the day by a bipartisan "Gang of Six" lawmakers that calls for $1 trillion in what sponsors delicately called "additional revenue" and some critics swiftly labeled as higher taxes.

The days of good cop / bad cop, establishment style politics are coming to an end. To DeMint's point, any Republican Senator who signs onto this deal and is up for reelection in 2012, he or she needs to be primaried at minimum. As for the House passing it, DeMint may be right about the end of the Republican Party at that point.

HERE is the entire AP article.