DeMint is one of the most prominent supporters (along with presidential candidate Michele Bachmann) of the notion that the U.S. government won't automatically default on its obligations if Congress fails to raise the debt limit. DeMint believes that Geithner can "prioritize" interest payments on debt over other government spending commitments, and thus escape a failing grade from the bond markets.

This has always been a ridiculous notion, but Geithner's letter provides the most in-depth and strongly worded rebuttal we've heard from the Obama administration so far.

Some key excerpts:

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While I am skeptical of the chances of a politician so far out on the right-wing extremist edge winning the presidency, I still think, on purely economic grounds, we should probably be relieved at the news. With the possible exclusion of Rand Paul, DeMint is probably the Senate's most vociferous advocate of big spending cuts, executed instantaneously. In last week's flurry of 2012 budget votes, he was a supporter of the proposal backed by Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, which, along with supposedly balancing the budget in nine years,  would also cut around $250 billion in non-defense discretionary spending immediately.

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What would lead these powerful conservative groups and stalwart Republican politicians to skip out on the biggest right-wing party of the year? Gay people. Specifically, people are up in arms about the participation in this year's CPAC of GOProud, a newish conservative group that, in its own words, "represents gay conservatives and their allies."

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Sen. Jim DeMint wanted to do that thing where one senator can demand that bills be read aloud in their entirety. DeMint was going to give the New START treaty and the omnibus spending bill the bedtime story treatment, until, apparently, Mitch McConnell made him back down. (But not before Harry Reid's press secretary got in this awesome zing. Hey, Harry Reid's press secretary, you wouldn't have to just impotently insult Jim DeMint's obstructionism on Twitter if your boss hadn't spent his tenure as majority leader enabling the obstruction by refusing to change archaic Senate rules allowing endless obstructionism!)

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Given the seemingly incessant scandal, ethical wavering, and lack of moral backbone in Washington today, it's no surprise that politicians are generally not held in high esteem. What is surprising is that politicians are not held up nearly enough in prayer. Whereas the Bible instructs us that "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, [should] be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority," (1 Timothy 2:1-2), I pledge to pray for America's elected officials at least once per week.

And by "elected officials" they mean solely DeMint, because everyone else -- so-called Republicans included! -- is a filthy abortionist liberal.

The FRC's goal is 1 million praying for DeMint, and they're currently at 4,500 and counting.

Because I'm a firm believer in public service, I signed up myself. I'm praying for ya, Senator! Hopefully this will protect you from intra-party squabbling, and lightning.

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But it's sure hard to ignore the blogging/Facebook/Twitter clamor. Any extreme weather event nowadays immediately brings up a consideration of its relationship to climate change and heat waves are especially conducive to such chatter. On this point, liberal-minded bloggers have been boringly unanimous in their careful equivocation. Nearly every single commentator takes pains to note that no single weather event can be conclusively tied to climate change. At the same time, it would be criminal not to observe that this year, so far, is on track to be one of the warmest years on record, and blistering heat waves are the kind of thing one might naturally expect as temperatures rise. (China, by the way, is also experiencing a record heat wave this week.)

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Does he hope to displace Mitch McConnell, the GOP leader in the Senate? Might he harbor even loftier -- that is to say, presidential -- ambitions? Or is he content to position himself as the most conservative senator in an increasingly conservative party, and to reap whatever harvest might result?

One thing is for sure: DeMint is one of the people with the most to celebrate as the strange saga of Alvin Greene, the unemployed Army veteran who is (for now) the Democratic Party’s Senate candidate in South Carolina, drags on. Why? Because despite South Carolina’s reputation as a Republican redoubt -- and despite the growing national buzz around DeMint -- the senator’s home-state standing had begun to look surprisingly shaky.

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Analyses of the vote by Tom Schaller and John Sides find plenty of weirdness -- like Greene doing really well in two really white counties -- but nothing that couldn't be explained by voters randomly choosing between two equally unknown options.

Michael Calderone reports that a Kos diarist knew something was up with Greene back in May. That post and a Columbia alt-weekly story that it inspired were the only pre-election stories on Greene. He was mentioned, and dismissed as unserious, a couple more times in the local press, but no one looked into the money question.

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An unemployed accused felon named Alvin Greene appears to be their nominee for U.S. Senate. Party leaders had lined up a former state legislator named Vic Rawl as the chosen candidate against incumbent Sen. Jim DeMint, so they're wondering how the hell this happened. And talk is starting to circulate that Greene is some kind of Republican plant, aided by the other party. Said Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, "There were some real shenanigans going on in the South Carolina primary. I don't know if he was a Republican plant; he was someone's plant."

I obviously don't know more about the situation in South Carolina than Clyburn, but I think the more pertinent fact is that nobody yet seems to know anything. So I'd like to mount a qualified defense of Greene.

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Here, he explains that he is running in order to bring out a unified Korea.

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He is apparently facing felony charges, it was revealed the day after he inexplicably won the election.

Last month, the local free weekly asked Alvin if -- assuming the $10,400 was indeed his own money -- it wouldn't have been wiser to have saved it, considering the fact that Greene is unemployed:

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It is, believe it or not, possible to sympathize with some of the grievances aired at CPAC, even without agreeing with them. But not when it comes to the right's seemingly universal conservative hatred of teleprompters.

At least four prominent Republicans yesterday took swipes at the president for his frequent use of teleprompters. Actor Stephen Baldwin (as in, not Alec) and longtime conservative activist (and technically, CPAC host) David Keene both made their teleprompter cracks, almost dutifully. Added Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., "I think we've confirmed you can't govern from a teleprompter." The star of the day, Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio, joked of the snowstorm that buried Washington, "And the president couldn’t find anywhere to set up a teleprompter to announce new taxes."

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This year’s CPAC has a few big names lined up as speakers. Delivering the morning keynote, for example, is new right-wing crush Marco Rubio, the Florida Senate candidate. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., Minority Leader John Boehner and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will talk as well.

But it's only when you look beyond the headliners that CPAC starts to get fun.

For instance, look for a woman named Leslie Sanchez at the opening ceremonies. A GOP operative, Sanchez argues that "Republicans’ intolerance on immigration could wreck the party’s governing majority." This would be bold and provocative, except that she’s been assigned the job of emceeing. So expect some high-grade tokenism here.

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I jest, but only a little. The Gore bit is the basic gist of the argument emanating from some quarters of the right, now that the federal government has been shut down by a series of powerful winter storms.

Before the first storm, last week, the Virginia Republican Party put out an ad urging constituents to call their Democratic representatives to complain about the global warming hoax. Suggested the ad, "Call Boucher and Perriello and tell them how much global warming you get this weekend. Maybe they’ll come help you shovel." (Hat tip to Think Progress.)

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"It is unfortunate that we are residing in such contentious political times, that exceptional, 'apolitical' candidates have to seriously consider their willingness to participate in public service," Southers wrote in an e-mail to friends and colleagues, the Associated Press reports.

Southers' nomination had been held up, primarily by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., first over concerns that he might allow security screeners to engage in collective bargaining and then over discrepancies in accounts he gave about an incident in the 1980's when the FBI censured him for improperly accessing a confidential database to get records about his estranged wife's boyfriend. (Emily Holleman profiled Southers in this space last week; you can read that here.)

All things considered, it's pretty amazing that the White House couldn't get Southers confirmed. They seemed to have a golden opportunity to do so in the wake of the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day, when DeMint started taking serious heat in the press for holding up the nomination. But apparently that wasn't enough.

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President Obama nominated Southers for the post back in September. Even after the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day, though, Southers' confirmation has been stalled. First, it was held up because Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was concerned that the nominee would allow TSA workers to unionize. Now, DeMint and other Republicans say they're worried about inconsistencies in Southers' account of a decades-old incident in which he inappropriately accessed confidential information.

Meanwhile, despite -- or perhaps because of -- the substantial amount of attention Southers has gotten as a result of his stalled nomination and the Christmas attack, the details of his career prior to being nominated have remained unexplored. Regardless of political agendas on either side of the aisle, Southers does have impressive qualifications: He'd bring over three decades of experience in law enforcement, counterterrorism and airport security to the job.

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Interviewed on NBC's "Today" show, Sen. Jim DeMint brushed off accusations by Democrats that he's unnecessarily delaying Southers' confirmation at a time of increasing terrorist threats and a leadership vacuum at the agency.

The South Carolina senator said Monday he's concerned that Southers would allow TSA employees to have collective bargaining, something he opposes. He said Southers "will not give me a straight answer." DeMint also said, "What I want is a few hours of debate on Mr. Southers to fix the nation back on security and get politics, especially union politics, out of our security apparatus."

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