[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17842-17843]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTES TO DEPARTING SENATORS


                               Jim DeMint

  Madame President, I would like to speak this morning in tribute to an 
unexpected addition to the list of retirees on the Republican side of 
the Senate, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
  They say success has many fathers, but it is hard to think of anyone 
who has done more than Jim DeMint to raise the public's awareness on 
spending and debt, and the threat that big government poses to our 
liberties.
  Jim has been a powerful voice for conservatism during his time in the 
House and the Senate. I have no doubt he will be extremely effective in 
his new post over at the Heritage Foundation. I wish him every success. 
Because the truth is, the Nation simply cannot continue on its current 
path, and if Jim can help more people understand that from his new 
perch on Massachusetts Avenue, then it will clearly have been worth it.
  And so while Jim's voice will be missed here in the Senate, we are 
glad to see he will be putting his considerable talents to good use by 
helping to arm his former colleagues and many others with the arguments 
they will need to make the case for constitutional conservatism in the 
years ahead.
  As a young boy, Jim developed a knack for sales by necessity. His mom 
ran a ballroom dancing school out of their home as a way to keep food 
on the table for her four children, and part of Jim's job was to 
recruit the students. He says he still runs into people who attended 
the DeMint Academy of Dance and Decorum. ``Our home sometimes seemed 
like boot camp,'' Jim once said, because to survive as a single parent 
his mom enlisted all four kids for daily duties starting at 6 a.m. It 
was ``the closest I would come to basic training.'' Interestingly, part 
of Jim's responsibilities involved filling in for folks who did not 
have a dance partner.
  When Jim wasn't busy in the ballroom, he was working his two paper 
routes or bagging groceries at the grocery store. On weekends, he fed 
his love of music as the drummer for a band called ``Salt and Pepper.'' 
He was best known for his vocals on the song ``Wipe-out'' and the 
song's distinctive opening cackle. Jim says he could have been a rock 
star, if it weren't for the fact that he had no voice or musical 
talent. So as an adult, he stuck with sales, and it was from there that 
he launched his political career.
  It has not been easy. Jim has always worked hard to ensure that 
Debbie and the kids remained at the center of his life. I know how much 
he admires Debbie for keeping her focus on their kids over the years. 
Theirs has been a true partnership almost since the day they first met 
all the way back in the seventh grade.
  Jim was not always all that political. In fact, those who know him 
best say that one of the most surprising things about his career is how 
such a shy and gentle spirit could be viewed by so many as a take-no-
prisoners firebrand. As a young marketing executive, he recalls 
thinking that he had a wife, kids and a business--and that was 
basically his universe. He did not even know who his congressman was. 
To this day, one of the things Jim enjoys doing most is working on his 
lawn back in Greenville. And while he has gotten his share of awards in 
Washington over the years, I don't think any of them compare with the 
one his neighborhood association gave him a few years back for ``best 
lawn.'' He is really proud of that one.
  Jim's interest in politics came about when the government started to 
intrude more and more into his business, and when he started to notice 
how it unwittingly harmed others. ``The more I learned about how things 
operated,'' he once said, ``the more I understood how problems in our 
society such as broken homes, crime, and school dropout were a direct 
result of well-intended but misdirected government policies.''
  So he got involved.
  In 1992, Bob Inglis walked into his office and asked for his help in 
running a race in South Carolina's 4th District. Jim took the job and 
for the first time began to think about running for political office 
himself. When Inglis retired, Jim decided to run as his replacement. He 
was 47 years old, he had never run for anything in his life, and Debbie 
thought he was crazy. But the voters liked what he was selling, and so 
did his colleagues in the House. They voted him President of their 
freshman class in 1999.
  Six years later, Jim was elected to the Senate. And he has been a 
leader here as well, working to cut Federal spending and reform how we 
spend taxpayer dollars. A conservative stalwart, Jim leaves with a 
stellar 98.77 lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. 
And, crucially, he has made a difference. One member of the press corps 
once referred to Jim as the patron saint of lost causes in the Senate. 
And, frankly, I don't think we will be abolishing the tax code anytime 
soon, as Jim has suggested, but that's to miss the point. Great causes 
almost always start out with a constituency of one, and Jim has never 
been afraid to take up important and unpopular causes early, and let 
the polls and punditry take care of themselves.
  After becoming what he called a ``recovering earmarker,'' he 
succeeded in convincing others to give up the practice. As a member of 
the Foreign Relations Committee, he was also instrumental in resolving 
a serious problem in Honduras a few years ago after the Obama 
Administration misconstrued the legal ouster of a president with a 
political coup. Jim enlisted Miguel Estrada to figure out what was 
really going on down there, and I was happy to help him travel to 
Honduras to investigate in person. Jim soon reported back that it was 
instantly obvious it was not a coup. The story eventually had a happy 
ending: the Honduran people held a new election and inaugurated a new 
president and the Obama administration grudgingly backed down. But none 
of this would have happened without the leadership of Senator DeMint. 
``The senator kept the administration honest,'' Estrada later said. 
``He was invaluable.''
  Senator DeMint and I share a profound commitment to free speech, and 
he has written eloquently on its importance for our Nation. ``Good 
government,'' he has written, ``is a result of freedom debated.'' He 
has called the right to free speech the ``most treasured benefit of 
living in a free and democratic nation.'' And he has certainly 
exercised that right to the fullest both here in the Senate and across 
the country.
  Throughout his political career, Jim has always been guided by an 
unwavering commitment to freedom, and I know it is that same commitment 
to defend and enlarge our freedom that led him into this next chapter 
in his life. It is this passion to defend freedom, both for Americans 
here at home and for our allies around the world, that has struck a 
chord with so many Americans and helped make Jim a national figure--not 
to mention a best-selling author.
  In addition to the fact that he and his staff have helped address 
more than 30,000 constituent inquiries during his time here in the 
Senate, it is also why Jim has remained so popular with his 
constituents back home, and it is why his colleagues here in the Senate 
are so sad to see him go.
  Jim leaves with a legacy. He has been a real champion for limited 
government and constitutional conservatism

[[Page 17843]]

on the national stage. But what has always guided him most over the 
years is the conviction that most decisions are best made at the local 
level. And whether it is his work with veterans, in promoting adoption, 
or in reforming education, that is what he has always stressed.
  So I want to thank the Senator from South Carolina for his sterling 
service to the Palmetto State and to our country. I wish him and Debbie 
and the entire DeMint family all the very best in the years ahead. 
Godspeed, Senator DeMint.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________