"I will go after Democrats, and I will shame Republicans"

That's SC Sen. Jim DeMint, who's the subject of The Fix's series on up-and-coming figures within the Republican party.

The question for DeMint, however, is whether or not his call for true-blue conservatism is the answer to what ails the Republican party or an appeal to the declining number of people who identify with the Grand Old Party.

DeMint insists that re-asserting the party's conservatism is the best way to build the party because it will allow the GOP to have a message again -- a gaping hole in recent years. "The tent is large if we really insist on more choices and freedom for everyone," argued DeMint.

DeMint's philosophy of tent-building has been somewhat schizophrenic.

He wrote a splendid op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on May 2, where he argued for a regional approach to building the party, claiming that one-size-fits-all means that many will be left out of the party.

Moderate and liberal Republicans who think a South Carolina conservative like me has too much influence are right!

I don't want to make decisions for them. That's why I'm working to reduce Washington's grip on our lives and devolve power to the states, communities and individuals, so that Northeastern Republicans, Western Republicans, Southern Republicans, and Midwestern Republicans can define their own brands of Republicanism.

Yet how does that square with his support for Marco Rubio over Charlie Crist?

By all standards, Charlie Crist's a more snug ideological fit for the state of Florida, and still DeMint seems more interested in imposing his South Carolinian brand of conservatism on purple Florida.

That being said -- let's see who (or if) he endorses in Connecticut.