DeMint to Newbie Fiscal Conservatives: Gird Your Loins

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal today, exhorting last night's victorious Tea Party candidate(s?) to hike up their pants, gird their loins, or otherwise prepare the lower halves of their bodies for a fight—and go boldly to Washington with their fiscal conservative mandate in mind. They're going to need fortifying because, as DeMint notes:

Many of the people who will be welcoming the new class of Senate conservatives to Washington never wanted you here in the first place. The establishment is much more likely to try to buy off your votes than to buy into your limited-government philosophy. Consider what former GOP senator-turned-lobbyist Trent Lott told the Washington Post earlier this year: "As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them."

Here's how he characterizes the stakes:

Congress will never fix entitlements, simplify the tax code or balance the budget as long as members are more concerned with their own narrow, parochial interests.

As pleased as I am to see Rand Paul rolling up those Capitol steps, I fear DeMint could have stopped after the word budget.

More DeMinty freshness here.