Crist-watch

“I’m at the point where it doesn’t matter if we win if we don’t believe in anything,” reads my favorite quote of DeMint’s in the Wall Street Journal story. “There’s no need to nursemaid somebody to the general election if they’re just going to come up here and vote like the Democrats do.”

Earlier this year he said: “I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don’t have a set of beliefs.”

Cornyn, who speaks regularly with DeMint about his freelance work, views his job differently. “We need candidates who can win,” he told the Journal in response. “What we’re in the business of is reinforcing our numbers, and the only way you do that is by winning elections.”

In my column this week, I noted that many of the things we spend so much time talking or reading about in the spring of 2010 will fade away but the DeMint divide will remain a hot topic next year. After the midterm elections — after four years of churning over why they lost in 2006 and again in 2008 — Republicans will have to coalesce around a few leaders and prepare to nominate one in 2012 for a presidential campaign. Then we will know if conservatives like DeMint changed the party’s mind for good.

SHOULD DEMS MOVE FORWARD WITH THEIR NEW IMMIGRATION PUSH? Ask A.B. returns Tuesday, April 27. Please join my weekly video Q&A by sending your questions and comments to askab@digital-staging.thehill.com. Thank you.