DeMint's adamant stance against earmarks -- funding for pet projects, often inserted anonymously into spending bills just before final votes -- has earned him raves from conservative columnists and bloggers, prompted TV network interviews and even drawn praise from the Washington Post editorial page.

It also has angered some senior colleagues in the Senate and fueled an unlikely alliance for DeMint with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat who is anathema to many GOP activists.

DeMint's opposition to earmarks has helped him begin to emerge from the shadow of Sen. Lindsey Graham, his fellow South Carolina Republican who is a regular on the Sunday morning TV talk shows and a frequent source in national news coverage of Iraq, terrorism and other national security issues.

Helping fulfill the voters' wishes

DeMint, entering his third year in the Senate after six years in the House, sees himself as fulfilling the clear mandate of voters in the Nov. 7 elections that ended Republican control of Congress.

In DeMint's view, most of the scandals behind the GOP collapse -- from the downfall of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to the corruption of lobbyist Jack Abramoff -- can be traced to earmarks and lawmakers' ability to secure millions of federal dollars beyond public purview.

"Clearly, the election showed that the status quo is not acceptable," DeMint said last week in an interview. "Americans didn't vote for Democrats as much as they voted against the leadership in Congress, which happened to be Republican. I think some of the Democrats know that if they don't do things differently, the same thing will happen to them."

That might explain how DeMint, on Jan. 11, came to be commandeering the Senate floor for hours, repeatedly invoking Pelosi's name and demanding that the Senate pass earmark reforms as significant as those already approved by the House.

"When we think the House gets it right, whether it is Republican or Democrat, we should take an honest look at it," DeMint said during a six-hour standoff with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "In this case, Speaker Pelosi has it right on the earmarks."

When Reid tried to outflank DeMint by demanding a roll-call vote, 10 Democrats -- including possible 2008 presidential candidates Barack Obama of Illinois -- crossed the aisle and sided with DeMint in demanding full transparency of all spending earmarks.

The landmark ethics reform bill that the Senate passed Thursday includes DeMint's amendment requiring every earmark sponsor's name to be attached to each project and advance electronic publication of all earmarks on the Internet.

The ethics measure also contains a separate DeMint provision that blocks lawmakers from being able to "air drop" earmarks into conference reports at the last minute of the legislative process.

The political victory surprised DeMint.

"For a few hours, I was the most powerful man in the Senate," he said with a laugh.

Charlie Black, a prominent Republican lobbyist and former GOP political consultant in Washington, said DeMint's star is clearly on the rise, especially among conservatives.

"Jim is what I call a policy activist," Black said. "Policy activates him more than politics or news coverage. He's motivated by the philosophical principles he believes in, and he's not afraid to take on a fight that's unpopular."

DeMint, 55, spent most of his first two years in the Senate in relative obscurity. A website popular with political junkies, http://www.congress.org/ placed him at No. 93 in its October 2006 "power rankings" of the 100 senators; Graham, by contrast, was at No. 14, even though he joined the Senate only two years before DeMint.

Warren Tompkins, a Columbia-based Republican consultant and lobbyist, worked on both senators' campaigns. He said such rankings are unfair because they are based more on style than substance.

"Jim just kind of quietly sneaks up on you, and he does it with the power of ideas," Tompkins said. "There's a big demand for that in America right now. He's quietly working his way up. You'd be making a fatal mistake to underestimate Jim DeMint."

Graham and DeMint say they are good friends who play tennis and share similar political philosophies. They stoutly deny even the whiff of rivalry between them.

"The Senate's a small place," Graham said. "There's only a hundred of us. Jim's reputation is growing quickly and in a positive way. I would argue that the two of us, in our first terms, have hit above our weight. And we are complimentary to each other."

Graham chuckled when asked whether his prominence prevents DeMint from getting his due.

"Anybody that knows me and Jim personally understands that together, we make a darn good team for South Carolina," he said.

For his part, DeMint seemed puzzled when queried about Graham.

"He does a great job with the issues he's working on," DeMint said. "A lot of it is focused on the military and Iraq, where he's got a whole lot of experience."

DeMint then adds an observation that could be sincere honesty, or a subtle dig.

"I find that you can often get just as much or more done by working under the radar," he said. "It doesn't necessarily help to create a stir."