The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Mike Lee, Tea Party Titan

Mike Lee, Tea Party Titan

By W. James Antle, III on 7.5.11 @ 9:55AM

Is Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) emerging as a Tea Party kingmaker? Politico reports:

It used to be that grassroots conservatives who aspired to run for the Senate would make a pilgrimage to see Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) in hopes of winning the imprimatur of the kingmaker and champion of conservative orthodoxy.

Now, just six months into his freshman year, the 40-year-old Republican junior senator from Utah has joined DeMint as a must-see for GOP candidates hoping to channel the energy of the tea party movement. He’s emerged as the second-most important conservative go-to guy in the Senate-and with DeMint’s pledge to not to marshal his resources against Republican incumbents this cycle, a meeting with Lee is essential for candidates battling the party establishment.

Lee came to the Senate as a giant-killer, taking out an entrenched Republican incumbent. Since getting there, he has joined Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in compiling a constitutional conservative voting record. If Jim DeMint won’t be as active in the GOP primaries in 2012, it would be helpful to have a conservative like Lee getting involved.

About the Author

W. James Antle, III, author of the new book Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?, is editor of the Daily Caller News Foundation and a senior editor of The American Spectator. You can follow him on Twitter @jimantle.

http://spectator.org/blog/2011/07/05/mike-lee-tea-party-titan

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