DeMint Mops Up Muppet Tactic for PBS Funding

Sen. Jim DeMint

Sen. Jim DeMint contends that defenders of public television have struck a low blow by enlisting cuddly creatures from educational programs for children to create sympathy for continued funding, the Washington Wire blog of The Wall Street Journal reports.

Arthur the Aardvark hangs with pal Rep. Ed Markey. (Getty)

The South Carolina Republican took to his blog this week to call out “the Muppet lobby” for using cuteness to twist arms.

“Make no mistake,” DeMint wrote, “public broadcasting’s furry friends are political animals.”

He was responding to a Capitol Hill news conference starring Arthur, the bespectacled aardvark of PBS children’s programming fame — actually someone in a stuffed Arthur costume, escorted to the microphone by Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who is a faithful friend of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Republicans have proposed eliminating all federal funding for PBS stations, arguing that the programming should be self-sufficient.