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Jim DeMint, one of the tea party’s founding fathers and leading intellectual lights, is leaving the US Senate for the presidency of the Heritage Foundation think tank – a move that some say may give him a greater clout as an arch-conservative voice uninhibited by party leadership.

The senator from South Carolina is stepping aside two years into his second Senate term. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) will name his replacement, who will serve until a special election in 2014.

Senator DeMint’s term will be remembered less for personal policy achievements than the political organization he built – and the contingent of deeply conservative senators he helped elect. DeMint played a key role in cultivating, funding, and stumping for a veritable who’s who of senators idolized on the right

“He’ll be somewhat limited in his political activity,” says Chris Chocola, the president of the like-minded Club for Growth. But “he expands his ability to influence policy and conservative thought through Heritage. There’s others like Rand Paul and Mike Lee and Ted Cruz that will work hard to support future colleagues of theirs.”

The foundation does maintain a separate political advocacy wing known as Heritage Action, however.

“They have separate but complementary functions,” says Jim Weidman, a spokesman for the Heritage Foundation. “Heritage is there to help lawmakers see the light on policy and Heritage Action is there to hold their feet to the flames.”

Indeed, some believe that by leaving the strictures of the Senate, DeMint may be able to expand his influence even more widely.

“Anyone who really understands this will conclude that DeMint's power just multiplied many times over along with that of the conservative movement,” says a Republican operative who could speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.

DeMint’s willingness to cross the Republican establishment in electoral politics is well-established. In opposing the candidates favored by the formal Republican political machinery, he generated some of the tea party’s most flying successes, like Senator Cruz, but also contributed to some its most fantastic flops. DeMint-backed candidates in Delaware, Colorado, and Indiana lost, helping keep Democrats in control of the Senate in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles.

Being branded by party leadership as out of line is just fine with folks like Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R) of Kansas, who, thanks in part to the mentorship of DeMint, see such branding by the party establishment as a badge of honor.Much more at http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2012/1206/Why-did-Sen.-Jim-DeMin
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