Gov. Haley: GIVE US TIM SCOTT

I was as surprised as anyone last week when conservative stalwart Sen. Jim DeMint resigned from his South Carolina U.S. Senate seat to become the president of conservative Washington, D.C. think tank The Heritage Foundation. While it’s never good to lose a solid conservative vote in the Senate, I think it’s great that President Reagan’s favorite D.C. policy shop will now be run by such a high profile conservative.

Since 1977, The Heritage Foundation has been led by Edwin Feulner, an icon among conservative activists and policy wonks, but a relative unknown to most people not actively engaged in the conservative movement. Heritage, which the New York Times called “the Parthenon of the conservative metropolis,” will benefit from DeMint’s high profile in Washington and across the country. I expect them to redouble their efforts in cranking out innovative conservative policy solutions and expand the reach of their grassroots organization, Heritage Action for America.

So with a seat now open in what some people call “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” all eyes swing to the Palmetto State.

South Carolina is the Major Leagues of GOP in-fighting and can sometimes make Republican squabbles in Alabama look like tee ball. But while these primary battles usually swing heavily on which candidate can build the strongest coalition within the splintered Party, the next U.S. Senator from South Carolina only needs to build a coalition of one: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. She will appoint DeMint’s successor who will serve until 2014.

Political appointments are complicated undertakings. There’s an endless list of pros and cons to weigh for each potential appointee. Personal vendettas, biases, and the interests of the individual making the appointment all come into play. Rarely is a political dilemma of this kind met with a solution so obvious that it needs no further discussion. This time, however, it is exactly that simple. One candidate so far outclasses the competition and so perfectly fits into the current political landscape that it renders pointless any sort of complex decision making process.

Congressman Tim Scott should be the next U.S. senator from South Carolina. End of discussion.

First and foremost, he’s the kind of staunch conservative that would make Sen. DeMint proud. The Washington Post is reporting that Sen. DeMint has told South Carolina Republican officials he wants Rep. Scott to be his successor. Although DeMint has denied playing any role in the appointment process, Yellowhammer sources in D.C. say DeMint has “sent the right signals” that Scott is indeed who he would prefer.

On top of being the best conservative choice, he would drive liberals absolutely insane by delivering a blow to their narrative that the GOP is a monolithic Party of old white men. Scott would be the only black senator and would immediately have a huge national profile. In case you missed that, it’s not that he would be the only black Republican senator, he would be the only black senator PERIOD… a Republican… from South Carolina. Awesome. The two brightest rising stars in the entire Senate would suddenly be a Spanish-speaking Cuban American from Florida and a Black man from South Carolina. Both would be Republicans.

I spent a good bit of time with Congressman Scott last year when he came to Alabama for a day. I was impressed with how down-to-earth he was; equally comfortable quoting the Bible or the Constitution or talking sports. The kind of man with the courage to take on the tough challenges and the charisma to give a winning pitch for conservative reforms to the American people. In other words, exactly what this country, not to mention the Republican Party, needs.

But Scott is far from a lock for the appointment. Insiders say that former South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster and former U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins are also on Gov. Haley’s short list. If either of them were appointed, they would likely just serve as a “placeholder,” leading to a bloody 2014 Republican primary for the seat.

“Looking forward, Governor Haley will now appoint a new Senator, and I know she will make the right choice both for South Carolina and the nation,” Scott said in an email. And I’m sure she will. But just in case she’s not getting the message:

Gov. Haley, on behalf of conservatives all across the country: GIVE US TIM SCOTT!