Menendez, DeMint spar over 'Waterloo'

Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on Sunday took jabs at one another over a comment the former made that healthcare reform will be the president's "Waterloo."

On ABC's "This Week" DeMint said that he didn't want the president to fail because of the stalled healthcare debate "I did not want this to be the President's Waterloo, but pushing through a massive government takeover of our health care system was certainly not a good idea," he said. 

Last summer, DeMint said of the healthcare bill "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

His comments come as Democrats are weighing alternative ways to pass the healthcare reform bill after Republican Scott Brown's win in the Massachusetts special Senate election.

"What happened in Massachusetts is just part of an American awakening," he said. "We saw it in Virginia and New Jersey. We see it all over the country in tea parties and town halls. People are alarmed and angry about the spending, the debt, the government takeovers."

Menendez took exception with DeMint's assertion, saying that he and other Republicans have been rooting for President Barack Obama's failure all along.

“Well, you know, my dear friend, Jim DeMint, did want to break Barack Obama," he said. "And the Republican whole political strategy is for this president and this Congress to fail."

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