Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina said in a just completed call with bloggers that conservative Republican Senators have  a chance to stop the auto bailout on the Senate floor, but it will be difficult. His hope is that the legislation has the same percentage of support that it did in the House — 58 percent — which of course wouldn’t cut it in the Senate. He said it may hinge on angry constituents calling those GOP Senators who are on the fence about supporting the bill.

On card check legislation, DeMint said that conservatives will have another difficult battle. Right now — assuming Norm Coleman hangs on — they have 42 Republicans, but they know they’ll lose Arlen Specter. So what that means is that if just one more Republican flips on the legislation, it passes, making it a very difficult fight.

In response to my question, he said it’s a real possibility that Democrats would drop the most controversial element of the legislation that denies workers the right to a secret ballot vote, acting as if they’re being magnanimous, and thus getting a few Republicans to vote for a stripped down bill that nonetheless still includes the potentially even more destructive binding arbitration clause.

DeMint said he’ll support legislation that would say that workers could not be forced to join a union if they don’t want to. Though it wouldn’t have a chance of passage, it would make an important statement, he said.