Posted on 05/09/2010 6:02:57 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
The Bennett lesson: All incumbents beware By: David Catanese May 9, 2010 07:28 AM EDT
SALT LAKE CITY — It's on. The first incumbent of the 2010 election year crashed and burned Saturday, and there's ample cause for alarm for officeholders everywhere.
There was no personal scandal, no whiff of corruption, no silver bullet here.
Republican Sen. Robert Bennett was one of the most powerful and likable members of the Senate, he diligently protected Utah’s interests from his post in GOP leadership and he funneled millions of dollars back to his state as an appropriator.
But Utah Republicans didn't care. In fact, that's exactly why they tossed him out in a humbling second ballot vote at the state party convention.
The circumstances surrounding his downfall were unique to Utah with its state convention process, yet there was an unmistakable message to incumbents on both sides of the aisle: This is no ordinary year, and the ordinary, time-honored methods of winning votes may not be enough.
For Republicans who are measuring the drapes in anticipation of reclaiming power, Bennett’s loss should be sobering. If the anti-Washington and tea party winds keep blowing this strong, some of them could be measuring their own political graves.
To one degree or another, all the national polls reflect the deep-seated unrest. The congressional job disapproval rating registered 72 percent when Gallup measured it last month. In a late April Washington Post/ABC News poll, 57 percent said they were “inclined to look around for someone else to vote for,” compared to just 32 percent who said they were inclined to re-elect their representative. Those results are slightly worse than on the eve of the 1994 election, when the same poll found 56 percent would look around and 37 percent would vote to re-elect.
(Excerpt) Read more at dyn.politico.com ...
Mostly Ron Paul supporters and others like Mitt supporters that are simply fanning the flames of anti-Palin rethoric.
the fact is that Bennett made his own bed by agreeing with the most hated socialist policies to come out of DC in a generation.
Perry, Palin, Santorum and others are if not a fav of most Tea Partiers then at least people that Tea partiers can/will support when faced with the other choices.
Tougher immigration laws? Oh really. The reporting on this Bennett story has been strange. They always mention that his vote for TARP was unpopular, but I have read several articles a not one mentions that he voted for amnesty.
Utah threw out Chris Cannon because of his pro-amnesty stances. It's as if the MSM does not want to attribute any of Bennett's downfall to his pro-amnesty votes.
Support for the dems is lukewarm at most, except for the paid off unions. Bennett had his good conservative points, but he supported the bailouts and compromised with the progressives.
People still do not get the gist of the Tea Party movement: conservatives want the Constitution upheld and Western civilization preserved. COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. That is why they are waivng Bennett’s scalp, why Rand Paul is going to win the Republican Primary in KY, and why Mitch McConnell is going to be replaced in 2014.
The libs have pushed this fight.
They went over board with their socialist push and the pendulum is about to swing back hard the other way.
“moderate” pubbies and libs everywhere should beware cause like Bennett many are about to lose their “career”.
Oh yeah and about that white guilt vote that got obammy elected, well that guilt b.s. is over.
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Yeah and who pays for that pork? Bennett also supported amnesty and large guest worker programs. He had a 64 ACU rating in 2008. Throw the bastards out.
I've seen no evidence of that. What “viciousness” there has been has been SEIU plants. As far as “tea party support” for against any particular candidate, as I see it, the “tea party” isn't about promoting specific candidates, it's about awakening voters to the real tragedy that the government has become.
I, for one, am sick and tired of republicans that won't stand up against the nonsense. If they are going to jump on the bandwagon echoing the liberal medias talking point “du jour”, we don't need them. Where are the Republicans exposing the lies about “cap and trade”? Where are the Republicans standing firm with Arizona and denouncing the media scum's lies?
The media is playing us like a fiddle, and they need taken down. The Obama regime is busy working to get the FCC to take over the only free source of information left.
There will be a revolution. The only question is will the communists be left standing or be driven into the dustbins of history?
I will not vote for ANY politician who is now in office. Get rid of every one. At the very least, it will cost the people who have bought and paid for our current crop of traitors a lot of money.
If there is an incumbent who actually fights for the conservative cause instead of resting on their laurels and being content with a little pork for their constituents, then vote them back in. But if they are living large on the government teat and doing nothing but protecting their jobs and taking care of special interests then they need to go.
Too many of our politicians lose their fire, they get fat and lazy, they get too chummy with the enemy and the special interests. We have voted the moderates in time and time again, assuring ourselves that they are better than the blazing liberals, only to find out that they’re not.
btt
Some of Paul's ideas are good, its just he has an undying tendency to go nutty WAY TOO OFTEN and his paulistas may be worse.
The Tea Parties we've been to in Texas have very few kookes (mostly internet radio nutz), but by far the most part are common sense good folks against this dem/lib socialism junk. Have not seen one anti-Perry or anti-Palin!
Yes!!! This is exactly what needs to happen. Kick these rino country club republicans asses out in the primaries!
Correct.
Alligators, sharks and snakes do not negotiate in good faith. They don’t negotiate at all, even if politicians want to think they do.
Pragmatic politics of the past led to incremental socialism. Keeping old pols in place simply because they are slightly better than Democrats keeps that process in place. It has led to national bankruptcies around the world. We’re on track to match.
People will recognize a real conservative when he courageously stands up and says “I promise to cut this, this, this, and this.” Name me more than one or two present prominent Republicans who have. Instead, like Bennett, they cower in the face of negative press attacks, cave, and then play the earmark game. Sorry, I’ve had enough.
They are darn sure trying too. Have you seen and heard their 180's lately? They've had their time to prove themselves, and FAILED miserably.
KICK THE RINOS OUT!
Re: Perry, I saw and have talked to plenty of TEA Partiers who don’t particularly care for Perry. However, they voted for him because they didn’t want a Washington insider, KBH, in his place. And they’ll vote for him in the governor’s race vs Dem White.
Re: Palin, I’ve met a few TEA Partiers who have bought into the LSM’s “unelectable” bilge, but they are coming around. Have met a few more who are getting upset at some of Palin’s endorsements. However, Palin went a long way reassuring them with her tweet (!!!) about Fiorina. The (!!!) is there because Palin reached more people with a simple tweet than most politicans could reach with a prime time presser!
The Republicans in greatest danger are the so-called "moderates" for whom "bipartisanship" means supporting the Reid-Pelosi ultra-left agenda. They are in greater danger in their primaries than they are in the general election.
Two kinds of Democrats are in trouble: Democrats of any stripe in Republican strongholds and Democrats in Democrat strongholds who haven't been sufficiently Marxist in their orientation.
What this means is, Democrats are going to get SHELLACKED across the board in November, and the new Congress will be more hardcore. That is, the remaining Democrats overall will be ideologically harder-left and ascendant Republicans overall will be ideologically harder-right.
Excellent point!! What I think we missed is thinking moderates/rinos were "slightly" better than the dems, but what we failed to realize is the enemy within is much more harmful than the enemy outside in this day and age. The John McCain's brought this country Obama, the socialist because he told the country we didn't have to FEAR Obama. That was the huge rinoistic assholical statement right there, which definitely lost him the Presidency.
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