US Person used to think that Ben Nelson (?-NE) was the worst senator in Congress. You may recall that Nelson earned our disgust by voting consistently with Repugnants during the Charlatan's regime despite running as a Democrat, and acting as an insurance industry hack in the excruciating healthcare reform debate {"Ben Nelson"}. Nelson is now poised as a member of the Senate Rules Committee to obstruct attempts at filibuster rule reform when the new Congress convenes in January. But sadly there is another senator even more worthy of our scorn, and that is Jim DeMint of South Carolina. DeMint is on a one man campaign to "purify" the Republican Party by eliminating any remaining moderates who might be inclined to vote with Democrats on pending bills. Besides giving financial support to Tea Party extremists, he has chosen to block any progressive legislation from passing through the upper chamber. DeMint told his colleagues on Monday that he would place a hold on all legislation not cleared in advance by his office before Tuesday. The fact that a single senator could threaten to unilaterally bring the Senate's business to a halt demonstrates how broken the institution is.{"filibuster"} Even his very conservative colleagues are not amused by the self appointed prophet from South Carolina. DeMint has had a standing hold on any legislation since Obama took office. The Senate has been unable to act on more than 300 bill that have passed the House, and 23 judicial nominees have yet to be approved by the Senate despite 16 of them having received unanimous support in the Judiciary Committee. Attorney General Holder wrote that at this rate, "fully half the federal judiciary will be vacant by 2020."
DeMint's grandstand tactics do not spare foreign policy. He has repeatedly voiced opposition to the START II treaty in the name of missile defense, a shibboleth he knows causes Vladimir Vladimirovitch to run to the toilet. Not satisfied with the compromise language inserted by Chairman John Kerry into the ratification resolution passed by the Foreign Policy Committee {17.9.10} DeMint offered an amendment to the the defense authorization bill that would require the US to deploy a missile shield "as rapidly as technology permits" against "all ballistic missile attacks." Current missile defense plans are aimed specifically at "rogue states" that may in the future be capable of launching a very limited number of missiles against the US or its allies. Never mind that such a strategic defensive system does not exist or even could exist given the capabilities of modern missle systems used in sufficient numbers by a strategic power like Russia or China. Rationality can be easily discarded in the feverish causes of a demagogue like DeMint. DeMint's amendment is in essence a rehash of the rejected Star Wars fantasy of Ronald Reagan. Even other Repugnants like Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Jon Kyl, and Bob Corker know that such an impossible dream is wildly expensive and dangerously destabilizing. Most frightening of all, it would give the United States a false sense of invulnerability.