Republican senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina says he wants to "create pain" for his colleagues in the Senate and "break" President Obama by defeating health care reform. In doing so, DeMint would of course also be creating pain for many of his own constituents and people across America who lack health care; breaking the lives and the financial as well as physical health of millions of uninsured. As a supporter of President Obama and his health care plan, I've got a better idea: Let's create pain for Senator DeMint instead. Let's see if we can break him.

In a recent interview with the evangelical World Magazing, DeMint said on his desire to defeat the Democratic agenda in Congress, "I am not going to be able to persuade my colleagues to do the right things, so I am just going to have to create pain" (HuffPost). Then, during a conference call with conservatives on the specific issue of health care reform, DeMint said: "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him" (Politico).

Obama shot back at DeMint July 20 in a speech at Children's National Medical Center, quoting DeMint's stated aim of using health care to "break" the president as evidence that Republicans are putting politics ahead of people (TPM, ABC):

DeMint will be up for re-election in 2010, having won his first term in the Senate in 2004 by a margin of 54-44 over his Democratic opponent, state superintendent of education Inez Tenenbaum, following the retirement of Democratic senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings. The fact that DeMint's immediate predecessor was a Democrat, and the competitive nature of Tenenbaum's 2004 campaign against DeMint, suggest that he is far from invincible; and that his seat could again be held by a Democrat.

From Obama's comments above it appears, as ABC has suggested, that the Democrats plan to use DeMint's words against him and other Republican opponents of health care reform. If DeMint ultimately fails in his efforts to derail health care reform it could further cost him politically. South Carolina was Obama's big "comeback" state after losing the New Hampshire primary to Hillary Clinton in 2008, and Obama's supporters in South Carolina should be none too happy about DeMint's stated desire to "break" the president for whom they so enthusiastically voted. They should also be none to happy that DeMint is putting politics above the well-being of his constituents.

The use of Demint's own words against him and (hopefully) his failure to derail health care reform could result in creating pain for him at the ballot box in 2010. If Democrats and progressive bloggers can create enough pain for DeMint, perhaps we can break him.

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com