Jim DeMint

A new 60-second radio advertisement from the Mitt Romney campaign makes an appeal to South Carolina's socially conservative Republicans. Listen to the ad below:

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina said yesterday that he thinks Mitt Romney will win the South Carolina primary on January 21.

The Romney campaign announced today that three North Carolina Republican congressmen have endorsed MItt Romney for president. Howard Coble, Virginia Foxx, and Patrick McHenry praised Romney for his business experience and economic know-how in prepared statements.

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Is Newt Gingrich getting out? Could be—or maybe you don’t need a staff to run. Is Rick Perry getting in? Why not? Who else combines governing success and Tea Party credibility? What about Rudy Giuliani? He apparently intends to see whether the second time’s a charm. In the Senate Dining Room, John Thune’s getting encouragement to reconsider from some of his colleagues, while Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn are conferring to see if one of them should carry the deficit hawk banner.

Senator Jim DeMint, R-S.C., sat down for an interview with Coffee and Markets, a podcast hosted by Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech. When asked about the National Labor Relations Board's attempt to keep Boeing from building a factory in his state, DeMint had some exceptionally harsh words for the NLRB:

I've pounded this drum good and hard, but here's another stark reminder that, thanks to hundreds of millions in campaign cash, the Democratic party is basically a subsidiary of organized labor.

The Hotline's Reid Wilson reports: 

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs is angry that Senator Jim DeMint is going to require a Senate clerk to spend 12 whole hours reading the START arms deal aloud before senators vote on it. Says Obama's spokesman in a statement:

The proposed earmark moratorium that the Republican Senate caucus will vote on tomorrow has pitted Oklahoma's two conservative senators against one another. "Republicans can send a signal that they get it," earmark opponent Tom Coburn tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD. "Or they can send a signal that they continue to not get it and say they're not going to change.

On Tuesday, Republicans in the Senate (as well as those who are about to join the Senate) will vote in a closed door session on whether to support an earmark moratorium, which has been recommended by Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn. The most comprehensive list of the current whip count has been compiled by Taxpayers Against Earmarks.