DeMint Barks, Senate GOP Bites Back

Sen. Jim DeMint may be the patron saint of lost causes in the Senate today, but he sure knows how to grab a headline.

Early this morning, DeMint backed off his plan to force a vote on expelling Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens from the Republican Conference -- preferring to see how the Alaska vote count goes today.

Later in the morning there was a vote DeMint's proposal on term limits for Senate leadership posts. DeMint obviously wants to make way in the Senate hierarchy for up and comers.

The proposal was rejected 36-5 by GOP senators.

Then DeMint proposed term limits for appropriators -- a challenge to the old bulls and a not so subtle rebuke to the "bridge to nowhere" era of earmarks.

That was rejected 36-4.

But DeMint doesn't give up easily -- he'll be back with his Ted Stevens expulsion resolution again on Thursday.