Jim DeMint ousted as Heritage Foundation president

The Heritage Foundation's board of trustees voted unanimously to give the conservative think tank's president, Jim DeMint, the boot.

In a statement released Tuesday, board chairman Thomas A. Sanders III said that after a "comprehensive and independent" review of the entire organization, the board determined that "there were significant and worsening management issues that led to a breakdown of internal communications and cooperation. While the organization has seen many successes, Jim DeMint and a handful of his closest advisers failed to resolve these problems." The board asked for and received his resignation, Sanders said, and the group's founder, Ed Feulner, will serve as interim president and CEO until a successor is found.

DeMint was a senator from South Carolina when he abruptly resigned four years ago to become president of the Heritage Foundation. Last week, reports began to circulate that he was on the chopping block, with Politico interviewing several people within the organization who thought DeMint "made the think tank too bombastic and political — to the detriment of its research and scholarly aims." They also said there was the "sense that he's made the institution too much about himself."

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