The conservative think tank helped kill comprehensive immigration reform under George W. Bush with an influential study arguing there would be trillions in costs, but the much-ballyhooed sequel, released Monday, has ricocheted back on them, thanks to accusations of shoddy methodology and the revelation that one of the study's authors once wrote what critics call a racist study on immigration.

Everyone expects ideological think tanks to produce studies that confirm their worldview, but when even conservatives call their new immigration report “deeply flawed,” as Marco Rubio did, or not “serious analysis,” as Haley Barbour did, you know Heritage has gone beyond the pale.

“It’s part of a longer trend” for the think tank, Bruce Bartlett, an apostate former Reagan adviser who worked at Heritage in the 1980s told Salon. “I think there’s been a decline in the quality of research with an increase in partisanship ... It’s much, much worse than in my day.”

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“I’ve experienced how none of us go through life without mistakes,” Sanford says in the ad. “But in their wake we can learn a lot about grace, a God of second chances and be the better for it. In that light, I humbly step forward and ask for your help in changing Washington.”

Watch:

Sanford left office in disgrace in 2009 after revelations that he was conducting an affair with an Argentinian woman, which came to light after he disappeared from his state. He is running for his old congressional seat, recently vacated by Republican Tim Scott after Scott was appointed to Sen. Jim DeMint's senate seat.

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“They are welcome to support the likes of Arlen Specter, Charlie Crist and David Dewhurst,” Barney Keller, the spokesman for the Club for Growth, told Politico on Sunday.  “We will continue to proudly support the likes of Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.”

This points to an open question about the new Rove effort, which is being called the Conservative Victory Project: What criteria will it use to determine who is and isn’t electable?

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Colbert-Busch, a Democrat who now works for Clemson University's Wind Turbine Drivetrain Testing Facility, filed to run for the South Carolina seat vacated by Tim Scott, who was appointed to the Senate to fill Jim DeMint's seat.

She faces two potential challengers in the Democratic primary, and, if she wins, could face former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford in the general election. 

Sanford, who left office in disgrace after his affair came to light in 2009, announced he will run last week, and faces Teddy Turner, the son of media mogul Ted Turner, as well as "five current and former GOP state lawmakers, a local sheriff and a Charleston city councilman," according to the Washington Post.

Turner already released a 30-second ad last week, the first in the race so far, as part of a 10-day ad buy costing $60,000.

Watch:

The primaries will be held on March 19, and the general election is set for May 7, according to the National Journal.

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Sanford told the National Review Online on Tuesday: "Officially we’re going to announce tomorrow, and then it’s off to the races."

The race is a special election in the state's 1st district, which will soon be vacated by Rep. Tim Scott, R, and which Sanford held for three terms from 1995-2001. Current Gov. Nikki Haley, R, tapped Scott to replace Sen. Jim DeMint, R, who left his seat to take a post at the Heritage Foundation.

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After the election, Jindal told Politico that the Republicans had to totally rebrand themselves to escape being known as "the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything." And so Bobby Jindal's big new idea for Louisiana is ... eliminating all income taxes. And shifting the tax burden onto poor and working people.

NEW ORLEANS, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Republican Governor Bobby Jindal said on Thursday he wants to eliminate all Louisiana personal and corporate income taxes to simplify the state's tax code and make it more friendly to business.

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The New York Times' Caucus blog reports that three Republican officials say that Scott will take the spot, making him the first black senator from the South since the late 1800s -- and the only black senator in Congress.

From the Times:

Ms. Haley seriously considered a number of potential contenders, particularly Jenny Sanford, the ex-wife of former Gov. Mark Sanford, who supported Ms. Haley in her race two years ago. But in choosing Mr. Scott, she selected a lawmaker with a strong conservative voting record during his two years in Congress.

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Stephen, thank you for your interest in South Carolina's U.S. Senate seat and for the thousands of tweets you and your fans sent me.

But you forget one thing, my friend.

You didn't know our state drink. Big, big mistake.

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Because of this No Money Rule, then, nobody should be surprised that there was almost no mention in any of the media of the real news behind Jim DeMint's announcement that he is leaving the U.S. Senate to head the Heritage Foundation. And that real news is this: His announcement is perhaps 2012's most biting message yet about the supremacy of money in American politics. Yes, even in a year whose presidential race was utterly dominated by super PAC special interest cash, nothing tells the story of where the true authority in politics lies than a sitting senator leaving a top post in the national government to lead a corporate-funded think tank.

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During "The Colbert Report" on Thursday, Colbert urged his fans to send Gov. Nikki Haley messages on Twitter with the hashtag "SenatorColbert" telling her why he would make a great senator from his home state. Haley is appointing a senator after Jim DeMint announced he is resigning at the end of the year.

Colbert, who plays a mock conservative pundit on his Comedy Central show, also gave Haley four reasons he was the perfect choice.

"You want somebody young, somebody conservative, somebody from South Carolina, maybe somebody who had a super PAC," Colbert said, ticking off the choices by putting down a finger until the final one was left pointing at himself.

"Wait a second," Colbert said, as his crowd cheered.

Thousands of messages poured into the governor's official Twitter account. She responded on her favorite social media site, Facebook, writing on her page that she appreciated Colbert's interest and all the tweets.

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We just managed to get through a campaign in which the Republican candidate’s idea of innovation was to hold a convention themed around an out-of-context quote from his opponent. But we knew Mitt Romney was at his heart a manager, not a policy innovator. So maybe it will be better next time, with new candidates such as Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan. Right?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Of course, there’s still plenty of time for innovative conservative ideas. Hey, don’t laugh. Ronald Reagan campaigned on a whole book full of policy options, and as recently as 2000, George W. Bush really did feature new ideas in his campaign.

But neither John McCain nor Mitt Romney had any interest in such things – and judging from the three proto-candidates who rolled out their “ideas” this week, it looks as if Republican politicians these days don’t even remember what actual policy ideas look like.

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Such is the coverage of Sen. Jim DeMint's departure from the U.S. Senate to take over the Heritage Foundation. So many words have been spent on this news. I hadn't planned on weighing in, but after watching all the ways it's being spun as some kind of victory for DeMint and the Tea Party, I had to say: Enough!

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To be sure, there was a time a few years back when DeMint’s stature and visibility was dependent on his Senate service. His initial victory in 2004 lifted him from the obscurity of the House to a perch from which he could attract attention from the conservative movement and the national press corps. And he exploited that opportunity for all it was worth, positioning himself as an ideological purist and playing the role of conscientious objector when his fellow Republicans sold out conservative principles (as he understands them). Active involvement in Republican primary races around the country grew out of this, with DeMint launching the Senate Conservatives Fund to provide political and financial support to fellow true believers, even – or especially – if they were up against candidates with substantial establishment support.

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"Stephen is honored by the groundswell of support from the Palmetto State and looks forward to Governor Haley's call," Carrie Byalick, Colbert's personal publicist, wrote in an email to Mother Jones.

DeMint announced today that he will step down from his seat in January to run the conservative Heritage Foundation, meaning that Gov. Nikki Haley will have to appoint someone to replace him until a special election can be held in 2014.

In response, a Twitter feed, @ColbertforSC, popped up to encourage Colbert to run. The account, and accompanying website, is not affiliated with Colbert.

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In the past, Colbert, a native of South Carolina, has twice tried to run for president, first in 2007 and then again 2012.

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DeMint will leave in early January, meaning that it will be up to South Carolina's Republican Gov. Nikki Haley to appoint a successor, who will have to run in a special election in 2014. DeMint was reelected in 2010, but already announced he wouldn't seek another term.

From the Journal:

In an interview preceding the succession announcement, Sen. DeMint said he is taking the Heritage job because he sees it as a vehicle to popularize conservative ideas in a way that connects with a broader public. "This is an urgent time," the senator said, "because we saw in the last election we were not able to communicate conservative ideas that win elections."

"This really gets my blood going again thinking about the possibilities. This is the time to elevate the conservative cause," he told the Post.

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“You know, we had a lot of bad news this week,” DeMint said. “On my way over, I was reading another story about a distant place where thugs had put 400,000 children out in the streets. And then I realized that was a story of the Chicago teachers strike. But we’ve got to think of good things.”

Via ThinkProgress.

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In Paul and DeMint's perfect world, there would be no taxes at all. And we know that the standard conservative argument to deflect regulation is to argue that "burdensome" rules raise costs. So it's not hugely surprising to see the two conservative icons rally against the Treasury on an issue that combines both taxation and regulation.

But let's break this down a little bit more. Bank misbehavior and irresponsibility wiped out trillions of dollars of American wealth, forcing millions of Americans out of their homes and jobs. Fixing the damage is costing the U.S. government a lot of money. If one way to find the cash necessary to do things like pay for unemployment benefits requires banks to do a little extra paperwork, is that really so bad? As far as I can tell, populist Tea Partyers hate Wall Street just as much as any Occupy activist. It just doesn't ring true: Give me liberty, or give me death, and, oh, by the way, keep the regulatory burden on multinational banks low so that they can help the richest Americans avoid paying taxes.

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Treaties need a two-thirds vote of the Senate to be ratified, and after Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte -- both potential vice-presidential picks for Mitt Romney -- signed on to the opposition yesterday, DeMint gleefully declared, “34 Senators now oppose LOST, sinking the misguided treaty."

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