In the days following the announcement that Senator Jim DeMint, conservative stalwart, would be resigning from the Senate to take the helm as President of the Heritage Foundation, speculation as to who Governor Haley will replace him with is running wild.

 
Let me lay out the case for why Representative Tim Scott is the man for the job.

Senator Jim DeMint

First of all, Tim Scott is a staunch conservative on fiscal and cultural issues. He is a Tea Party conservative with a 96% ACU (American Conservative Union) rating. He was also elected by his colleagues as one of two members to represent the 85-member Republican freshmen class of the 112th Congress at the leadership table.

He is fearless, a quality lacking in many Republicans today. While the Democrats were holding their abortion love-fest in Charlotte, Scott, along with Governor Haley, held fort outside, bravely denouncing Obama’s pitiful and failed record.

Another great quality to a Senator Scott would be that he would drive a stake right through the heart of the Democrats’ narrative that Republicans are bunch of dying, old, racist, rich, white guys. He would be the first Black Republican in the Senate since Edward Brooke left the upper chamber in 1979.

Chris Matthews

The idea of Chris Matthews weeping into his booze at the thought should excite every conservative.

Scott is a rising star in the Republican ranks, and we shouldn’t be afraid to let people know he is on our side. It would be a way to show that there are non-whites in the Republican Party when there’s not an election nearby.

Senator Strom Thurmond, segregationist

Scott’s race would also make this pick historic because South Carolina is the state where the Civil War began and the state that elected Strom Thurmond. Imagine being able to say that the first Black Senator from the state of Strom Thurmond was a Republican. I can picture the hosts at MSNBC having a collective stroke at the thought. Not only that, but Scott also won his House seat by defeating Thurmond’s son in the primaries.

Scott makes a compelling case for conservatism: he grew up poor in South Carolina, with a mother “who believed in tough love, and that love comes at the end of a switch … and a small-business owner, who was my mentor, who taught me I could think my way out of poverty.” His story is compelling because even though he was poor, the message he got wasn’t “sidle up to the government and get free stuff” – it was “get off your behind and make something of yourself.”

Brent Nelsen, professor of political science at Furman University says of Scott,

“Tim says exactly the same things as Jim [DeMint] does, but he talks about his upbringing and the mentor who taught him the principles of making it in the world. He’s really credible as a conservative who has a heart for disadvantaged people.”

Governor Nikki Haley

In short, you can preach the message of conservatism without appearing to be mean (notice I said appearing to be, as opposed to actually being mean as the left accuses us of being).

A message to Governor Haley: Tim Scott would make a fantastic Senator.

He’s got the Tea Party credentials, the conservative voting record, and in a time where the Senate is run by crooks like Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer, we need men of integrity in the Senate. Senator DeMint will be remembered as a statesman, and Scott has the potential to be remembered as the same. All we need is for you to say, “I now give you Senator Tim Scott.”

He would not only be great for South Carolina, he would also be good for America.