DeMint: 'Sacreligious' to vote on START before Christmas

Posted By Joshua Keating Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - 3:22 PM Share

This is a new one:

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) called Democrats' push to force through an arms control treaty and an omnibus spending bill right before Christmas "sacrilegious," and warned he'd draw the process out to wage his objections. 

"You can't jam a major arms control treaty right before Christmas," he told POLITICO. "What's going on here is just wrong. This is the most sacred holiday for Christians. They did the same thing last year - they kept everybody here until (Christmas Eve) to force something down everybody's throat. I think Americans are sick of this."

Not quite sure by what definition Dec. 15 qualifies as " right before Christmas." As Steve Benen points out, "Americans nationwide are working this week and next, as are U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan."

And if DeMint is really so concerned about getting his holiday shopping done, he might want to reconsider taking up the rest of today by having the entire treaty -- which was signed in April -- read aloud. 

Win McNamee/Getty Images

EXPLORE:NUKES, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, POLITICS, RUSSIA, U.S. CONGRESS, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
 

WALKING WOUNDED

10:25 PM ET

December 15, 2010

Sacreligeous ' rhetoric works

I'm a lifelong democrat of the VN generation, raised Baptist. The preacherly rhetorical ploys being used on the 'churched' work better than those more used to NPR soft-talk are likely to understand.

Working since May, Sen Kyl's party obstructed ratification to get a deal. Lugar Republicans could get the New START they want, if they supported N-arms modernization, which Team Obama ante'd up, to the tune of $87B. Post-midterm, Kyl/McCormick now see opportunity to renegotiate for a sweeter deal.

 

CSB1986

12:47 AM ET

December 16, 2010

Americans

No, Mr. DeMint. In this case Americans aren't sick of anything other than you not doing your job. Maybe you should try doing that.

 

PUBLICUS

7:25 AM ET

December 16, 2010

Sanctimoneous

Sen DeMint loves to play with fire. History shows us that the tangling of religion and politics has killed more people than the other three Horsemen combined. No kingdom has known more wars than the kingdom of god. The ideologue DeMint is a man absent of sound judgment, balance, perspective.The Republic endures because it is constitutionally stronger than such demagogues as the Republican senator from South Carolina..

 

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