Brian Beutler October 5, 2010, 10:24 AM

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is sending out a warning to his fellow Republicans: Stand tall against government spending this fall, and be prepared for a showdown.

“[B]efore they’re replaced in January, all of the Democrats who are put out of a job in November will be able to come back and rob the nation blind,” DeMint writes in the conservative National Review.

At a glance it appears DeMint is lashing out at Democrats. But his real concern is that members of his own party — who he described last week as “retiring Republican appropriators” — will join Democrats during the lame-duck session of Congress and pass large spending legislation to keep the government running (what’s known on the Hill as an omnibus spending bill).

In the article, DeMint notes that potential Republican Senate victories in Illinois, West Virginia, and Delaware would grow GOP ranks, and help them limit spending. He’s urging Republicans to press Democrats now to vow not to pass any major appropriations measures in November or December.

Here’s a primer on just what DeMint proposes. In short, he wants Republicans to block any plan to fund government though the 2011 fiscal year, preferring instead to let the new Congress take up government spending in February — presumably with a much larger Republican presence in the Senate. The catch is that, if neither side blinks, we end up with a government shutdown.

So who are these retiring Republican appropriators DeMint is worried about? There’s an awful lot of them: Sens. Kit Bond (R-MO), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Bob Bennett (R-UT), Sam Brownback (R-KS), George Voinovich (R-OH), and (possibly) Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

Late update: This article originally listed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) as one of the retiring Republican appropriators. She is up for re-election in 2012. We regret the error.

2010 elections, George Voinovich, Government Shutdown, Jim DeMint, Judd Gregg, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Kit Bond, Lisa Murkowski, Sam Brownback, Spending