Before Jim DeMint ran the Heritage Foundation, he was the top conservative kingmaker in Congress. Ousted from his think tank perch, now is a good time to review the state of the larger DeMint project: pulling the Republican Party rightward.

“I’d rather have 30 Marco Rubios in the Senate than 60 Arlen Specters,” DeMint, then a Republican senator from South Carolina, said during the Tea Party’s prime. He did his part to make it happen, when his Senate Conservatives Fund helped elect Rubio, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Ted Cruz to serve alongside him, while Specter was replaced with Pat Toomey.