Candy Crowley does her viewers a disservice here by allowing Jim DeMint to pretend that there's an ounce of difference between his and Sharron Angle's views on what they would like to do with the Department of Education. They both want to dismantle it. You'd think Crowley could have done a little bit of homework before she had DeMint on the air because if she had she'd have known he said this during an interview with David Brody on CBN:
Senator Jim DeMint: "I don't want to run for President. I think it's going to be an Abraham Lincoln type of Presidency the type of sacrifice. The next President is going to have to tell Americans the hard truth that the federal government has got to do less rather than more. That President has got to figure out how to dismantle the Department of Education and move the power back to the states, to dismantle the Department of Transportation and get them out of building local roads and bridges and focus on a national infrastructure; to look at the Commerce Department and the waste and the duplication there and begin to (inaudible) back to the private sector. We can't keep the same infrastructure in Washington and avoid bankruptcy as a nation. The next President is going to have to reform our entitlements. It's not popular. We’re going to have to fix our tax code so there's going to be pain and sacrifice. I'm looking for a President like Ronald Reagan who has some of Winston Churchill's characteristics."
Compare and contrast to his weasel words during this interview with Candy Crowley. What's the matter Jim? You don't want to be quite as blunt about how you really feel with the CNN audience? I don't know why it would matter. It's not like the Democrats are ever even going to try to field a decent candidate to run against him.
CROWLEY: When you -- some of these candidates that have been embraced by the tea party and by you individually, have had some ideas that people do consider to be out of the mainstream, the argument is, that's great, inside the Republican Party, big civil war going on, the tea party has had some great victories, but once we get to the election...
DEMINT: What ideas are you talking about?
CROWLEY: Well, OK, and I wanted to ask you about it. So, for instance, Sharron Angle wants to get rid of the Department of Education, is that a good idea?
DEMINT: Well, I think -- I agree that we need to devolve a lot of power out of Washington, and I would have to ask her what her position is on that.
CROWLEY: Well, getting rid of it completely, is that a good idea? Just, no more Department of Education?
DEMINT: Well, I can see a role of looking at best practices around the state. But the fact is pretty clear, Candy, since the federal government increased its involvement in the '60s, the quality of our education relative to the rest of the world has declined. And we spend more per student than any other country in the world.
So I've introduced a bill to devolve a lot of power from the federal government back to the states.
CROWLEY: But that's not the same as abolishing the Education Department, which, as you know, is quite symbolic. And a lot of money comes from the federal government...
DEMINT: Well, she's very bold to say it. The fact is, education would probably work a lot better without the Department of Education.
CROWLEY: So you would support...
DEMINT: I would support a devolution of power out of Washington for education, health care, transportation. And I've introduced a lot of legislation for that too. And you can do it in a common-sense, reasonable way that doesn't disrupt any of the activities that we support.
