Hollings and Tenenbaum Contradict Themselves in Their Criticism of DeMint

As has been reported in several newspaper articles (here, here, and here), Fritz Hollings has recently come out swinging against Jim DeMint. However, his criticism of DeMint—much like Tenenbaum’s—is internally inconsistent. Let’s look at the two major arguments that Fritz and Inez are now making against DeMint (my description, their argument):

1) DeMint is a rabid advocate for a 23% national sales tax—putting himself on the fringes of the tax policy debate. As Tenenbaum likes to point out, a number of conservative economists have criticized the proposal. Furthermore, George Bush has recently stated his opposition to a national sales tax. Hollings took the point further yesterday by stating that both Governor Sanford and Senator Graham are against the proposal (although it's not clear to me that they are). So, according to Tenenbaum and Hollings, we have reason to worry that, if elected, DeMint will buck the GOP leadership and the President and push for a national sales tax.

2) DeMint is unable to take a stand for himself and would merely constitute “a rubber stamp” for the President. (Senator Hollings went so far as to say that South Carolina already has a rubber stamp for the President in Senator Graham, which indicates that Hollings either has become disengaged or is merely engaging in hyperbole. However, I do think it’s worth noting that, in recent years, Senator Hollings has become something of a “rubber stamp” himself—only he’s been a rubber stamp for Tom Daschle.)

Anyone who is reading this should be able to figure out the contradiction in the two arguments being made against DeMint. (In brief, argument number 1 provides evidence that argument number 2 is not true.) That said, I think that most South Carolinians wouldn't really have a big problem with sending a “rubber stamp” for President Bush to the U.S. Senate.

Comments

[Judy]

It was frstrating to only hear about this national sales tax which would never pass either the House or the Senate. It was just one idea that Mr. DeMint cosponsored, as was the flat tax. He sponsored H.R. 3215 which would create a bipartisan commission to assess all the options for tax reform. He just wants to debate all the options, a fine trait.

In terms of Sen. Graham and supporting the sales tax idea I beleive that this is pretty clear: "There's a lot of different ideas out there," Bishop said. "(Graham) prefers a flat tax, but he would happily take a national sales tax." [The State, Graham goes to bat for DeMint in news ad,10/09/2004]

In my opinion, the second part of this statement is just Sen. Graham being a good politician so as not to draw attention to the differences between he and Mr. DeMint, which former Gov. Beasley tried to make an issue of after the primary [Charleston Post and Courier, Beasley riles Graham by invoking his name, 06/11/2004]. The issue here was trade, but it could easily also be applied to tax reform. If there are differences between Graham and DeMint on the type of tax reform that should not be the issue and if Mr. Bishop had not made this statement then the focus would have switched to the differences between the two on this issue.

[Cheetoshead C.]

and i love that your last posting occured on my birthday...
and that it dealt with sanford's possible presidential run