DeMint: Cain not ‘as disciplined as he needs to be’

Sen. Jim DeMint (R.-S.C.) said Herman Cain’s remarks on abortion were due to inexperience, and that the Republican candidate is “not quite as disciplined as he needs to be.”

Last week Cain said abortion “ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make.”

In an interview Monday on The Laura Ingraham Show, DeMint said the comment was merely a case of the candidate misspeaking.

“When you talk all day you’re eventually going to say something that gets you in trouble,” DeMint said. “Herman’s a business man more than a politician, and frankly, after being in it for more than ten years myself, I still make that kind of mistake.”

But Ingraham pushed DeMint on this assessment, saying she didn’t believe the senator would ever mistakenly say abortion was between a woman and her family.

Still, DeMint declined to directly criticize Cain’s remarks.

“I remember when I was a business man and first started running for Congress, there were things like you said--just a second ago--that I hadn’t maybe thought through or talked about,” DeMint continued. “Certainly not the abortion issue because it’s been so important to me before I ever thought about running for Congress. So I’m not trying to make excuses for Herman but I do know that probably he’s not quite as disciplined as he needs to be and that sounded clearly like a mistake where he said things that completely contradicted each other.”

Cain tried to clarify his pro-life stance in a statement released last Thursday, although he still stopped short of saying that abortion should be illegal.

“I will oppose government funding of abortion,” the statement said. “I will veto any legislation that contains funds for Planned Parenthood. I will do everything that a president can do, consistent with his constitutional role, to advance the culture of life.”

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has gone after Cain for his remarks.

"Herman Cain’s pro-choice position is similar to those held by John Kerry, Barack Obama and many others on the liberal left,” Santorum wrote in a fundraising appeal to supporters. ”You cannot be both personally against abortion while condoning it — you can’t have it both ways. We must defend the defenseless, period.”

DeMint again said he was waiting until further along in the process before making an endorsement. Winning the support of the South Carolina senator could be a major coup for one of the candidates, as DeMint remains a favorite among Tea Party conservatives.

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