In a stunner, DeMint chooses to leave the Senate

>>> now let's move to the big news. politic politically yesterday, and that was jim demint , haley just released a statement on filling senator jim demint 's seat. it says in part, quote, i want to make two things clear from the outset. number one, i will not take the appointment myself. number two, i will appoint a person who has the same philosophy of government jim demint and i share. there you go. just out this morning. maggie, i'll let you take that first. well, that is good news if you are tim scott , i assume.

>> i assume.

>> she mentioned jim demint in the statement and nikki haley aligning herself with the new ceo of the conservative movement .

>> which she has to do. look, nikki haley now has something that we have described as goldman, right, without being a scandal. tim scott 's name has been tossed around by conservatives, as we know. i have word from some people the ag as a place holder, where this ends up going is going to be extremely interesting. i think that demint is going to have some say in what ends up happening here.

>> and what's intriguing here is there are so many interesting moving parts and you may care about this in a couple of years if you get involved in a presidential race , but you have lindsey graham here who is worried about a conservative challenger who thinks wouldn't it be great if they run for the other senate seat. haley worrying about challenges more from the business community . she would like all of the attention on the senate seat. so the incentive for haley , while on one hand don't want to make conservatives mad but would like to get the attention off of her race. what do you do?

>> south carolina politics is as tough as it comes. any state in the country. it's going to be a great duel to watch in terms of the jockeying for position but it is a great position to be in right now. you get to make somebody very, very happy. other people will be upset but then there will be numerous races on the ballot. there's a whole lot going on.

>> all at the same time and the presidential primary hanging over the place. to tim scott . you have done some coverage of him.

>> yes.

>> i think it would be a quite obvious play that would help the republicans. it would be obvious what they're doing and then the question would be could he actually then win the seat in 2014 . could he actually win it on his own. being appointed and then having to receive, having lost an election --

>> but let's -- the record of appointed senators is mixed at best. mickal bennett survived one. gillibra gillibrand, it's not easy. the first part is never easy.

>> if he gets appointed, he'll win.

>> i'm with you. i think he wins. does that mean it all goes back to lindsey and conservatives walk away, all rally around tim scott . stick around. i want to