South Carolina and the Fair Tax

Everyone in the conservative elite press is beating up on Mike Huckabee now. Today the Wall Street Journal took another whack, mostly targeting the Fair Tax plan.

On one part, the Wall Street Journal is just plain exaggerating:

In 2004, Democrats came from nowhere to nearly beat South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint by pounding his support for the fair tax.

First of all, DeMint won by TEN points. Secondly, his opponent was the state Superintendent of Education, Inez Tenenbaum, a bright, capable elected official who had been active in state politics for 20 years. Whether attacking the Fair Tax was effective or not is sort of beside the point -- DeMint won handily against a skilled opponent.