South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint is stepping down from the US Senate to head the Heritage Foundation. Slate Magazine discusses how he changed the Senate in the brief period of time he was in office. The Senate has grown increasingly combatative over the years, and DeMint has played a role in this. Case in point: His support for Tea Party candidates whose mission has been to inhibit the Senate's tradition role in making long term decisions:
He now sees a greater fit for his skill set pressuring the Senate from the outside - plus, he'll make a lot more money doing so.