Former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who resigned earlier this year to lead a conservative Washington-based think tank, occasionally voted against Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “while in the Senate. But they rarely criticized each other in public,” the Columbia State reports.

But the political action committee that DeMint founded in 2008 released a radio ad in South Carolina criticizing Graham for recently saying that voting to defund the Affordable Care Act was “a bridge too far.”

NPR notes DeMint is on record saying that Republican unwilling to vote to defund Obamacare “need to be replaced.”

Donald Trump warned Gov. Chris Christie (R) against working with Stuart Stevens, the top strategist for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, The Hill reports.

Said Trump: “I think he did a terrible job for Mitt Romney, absolutely terrible. That was a campaign that should have been won. I don’t know Stuart Stevens from a hole in the wall. I don’t know what he looks like. But I will say this, whoever ran that campaign, that is not the person I would want running my campaign if I were running.”

Howard Dean is visiting Iowa and New Hampshire this week, CNN reports.

Rick Klein: “There is no perceptible groundswell for Dean to
get the band back together, a decade after his campaign implosion. But
when Dean says — and yes, he’s said this — that he’d think about giving
it another go if other Democratic candidates aren’t speaking to the
progressive base, take him seriously. Whether Dean becomes the vehicle
or not, there’s room to President Obama’s — and Hillary Clinton’s — left
at the moment, on topics both foreign and domestic. Dean may not be the
vehicle to channel that energy, but his reception could in part dictate
what kind of vehicle will be in order.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) refused to say whether he believes he is eligible to run for president of the United States even though he was born in Canada, NBC News reports.

Said Cruz: “I’m not going to speculate about legal consequences – I’m going to leave that to others.”

New York Times: “Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate and a leading Democratic contender for mayor, has a confession: He is a Red Sox fan, tried and true. He was raised in Cambridge, Mass., becoming a devotee of the Red Sox at 6, and he is unabashed in his disdain for anything having to do with that team from the Bronx.”

Said de Blasio: “I have my loyalty to the team of my youth” calling his tie to the Red Sox a “deep devotion.”

A new Quinnipiac poll in Virginia finds Terry McAuliffe (D) holds a six point lead over Ken Cuccinelli (R) among likely voters in the race for governor, 48% to 42%.

Said pollster Peter Brown: “The campaign has been light on issues and big on personalities, and it is in the area of personal characteristics that McAuliffe has a small edge. It seems obvious that Gov. Bob McDonnell’s political troubles are hurting fellow Republican Cuccinelli. Guilt by association may not be fair, but it sure is politically powerful. Trust matters and at this point neither man is doing all that well in that category.”