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Utah senator experiences toxic shock
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 5/11/10 | Debra J. Saunders

Posted on 05/11/2010 7:59:08 AM PDT by SmithL

Over the weekend, a Utah GOP convention failed to nominate Sen. Bob Bennett in his third re-election bid to Congress.

When a party rejects its own incumbent in a primary - and he's a mild-mannered Uncle Bob-type not involved in a sex scandal or facing criminal indictment - that's huge.

On the one hand, it's healthy when voters demonstrate that no incumbent owns his or her seat. On the other hand, when party voters demand the kind of purity sought by Bennett's opponents, they risk triggering a stampede from the center. And woe be the lawmaker who works across the aisle. The far-side is running the party.

Bennett, 76, was undone by a system that allowed 3,500 convention delegates to decide that businessman Tim Bridgewater and attorney Mike Lee would face off in the June 22 primary.

They prevailed because the anti-tax Club for Growth waged a successful campaign that urged delegates to reject Bennett because he supported President George W. Bush's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and has been an aggressive ear-marker. Citizens Against Government Waste recently ranked Bennett among earmarkers as the 14th largest spender.

As club spokesman Mike Connolly put it, after Bennett went back on his 1992 term-limits pledge, "He's really become a Washington creature. He's an appropriator."

Thus, Connolly crowed, the weekend's results were a victory, as the GOP nominee, whoever he is, will be more conservative than Bennett, and sure to win in November.

As Connolly put it, "It really was a matter of what kind of a Republican do you want to send" to Washington?

Not so fast.

As of my deadline, Bennett had not ruled out a write-in foray.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Politics/Elections; US: Utah
KEYWORDS: bennett; rino; teaparty
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To: Nickname

It’s the San Francisco Chronicle. If they had reported it any other way it’d be surprising.


21 posted on 05/11/2010 8:26:00 AM PDT by Personal Responsibility (I'd use the /s tag but is it really necessary?)
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To: Liz
...it's The People's Seat.

What did you expect? "Welcome, sonny"? "Make yourself at home"? "Marry my daughter"? You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.

22 posted on 05/11/2010 8:31:10 AM PDT by Pan_Yan
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To: I cannot think of a name

Very clever. :-)


23 posted on 05/11/2010 8:32:17 AM PDT by Pining_4_TX
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To: Hodar

The terms right, left, and center are all nebulous anyway. The country has been marching leftward for decades. The so-called center today is leftist.

Time to get away from these meaningless labels and stand for principles.


24 posted on 05/11/2010 8:34:52 AM PDT by Pining_4_TX
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To: GraceG
Most of the Dems in the Tea Party are “Truman” democrats, they haven’t liked the party since Carter, but they continue to cling to the Donkey, LOL.

Sooo...they're suckers!

25 posted on 05/11/2010 8:35:21 AM PDT by Niteranger68 (Barack Obama is Osama bin Laden's relief pitcher.)
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To: SmithL
The usual Leftie argument: Republican centrists need to be kept to reach across the aisle so that government can continue to function. What they have to reach across to is far left policies. So, as always, the purpose of the Republican party is to rubber stamp the left and make their policies acceptable. Note, Obama reaches across the aisle for nothing. It's his way or the highway. So the appropriate response to a far left that won't compromise is a far right that won't compromise. This idea that passing legislation is the only measure of a functioning government is also a ruse. How about a government that actually enforces what's already on the books as a measure?
26 posted on 05/11/2010 8:36:39 AM PDT by throwback ( The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid)
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To: SmithL
...Bennett went back on his 1992 term-limits pledge, ...

I don't know what all the fuss is about. the delegates were just "helping" him to keep the promise he made 8 years ago.

27 posted on 05/11/2010 8:38:52 AM PDT by TexasRedeye (Eschew obfuscation)
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To: SmithL

Isn’t it AMAZING how worried left wing reporters are about the republican party!!


28 posted on 05/11/2010 9:01:47 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax
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To: SmithL

What center. There is no center. Either you are for America or you are against.


29 posted on 05/11/2010 9:09:07 AM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: SmithL
I caught this link on Instapundit back to RedState, and I thought it was a very good analysis of what actually happened in Utah; and, how the MSM will continue to misinterpret it.

What Happened In Utah

30 posted on 05/11/2010 9:10:23 AM PDT by LibertarianLiz
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To: Niteranger68

“Most of the Dems in the Tea Party are “Truman” democrats, they haven’t liked the party since Carter, but they continue to cling to the Donkey, LOL.

Sooo...they’re suckers!”

They are all “My Grandaddy and Daddy was a Democrat so I am one too” type democrats.


31 posted on 05/11/2010 9:12:52 AM PDT by GraceG
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To: SmithL
Hey, MSM, this is what really happened:

It had everything to do with Bob Bennett being one of those Republicans who hid behind the safety of an 80% American Conservative Union rating without realizing he was still the 8th most liberal Republican in the United States Senate, even though he’s from the most conservative state in the nation.

Bottom line is we in the base got tired of several years of being in the majority with a President in the White House and having precious little to show for it precisely because of Republican Senators like Bennett.

32 posted on 05/11/2010 10:01:50 AM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: SmithL
when party voters demand the kind of purity sought by Bennett's opponents

Opponents? I prefer 'constituents'. Or simply 'we the people'...supposed to represent us. And when 'we' don't like something, 'we' send a 'time for a change' messasge...

33 posted on 05/11/2010 10:18:33 AM PDT by LearnsFromMistakes (Tag line deleted...don't want to incite violence...)
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To: SmithL
Asked about Bennett at a news conference Monday, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said she saw Bennett's ouster as proof that Republicans don't want lawmakers who are willing to depart from the party line.

A brief flicker!

And everybody thought that little ten watt bulb over Boxer's head was completely dead!

34 posted on 05/11/2010 10:22:17 AM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: dead

I think after the passage of Obama Health Control, the Democrats have no room to talk about how to treat those who depart from the party line.


35 posted on 05/11/2010 10:29:09 AM PDT by AmishDude (It doesn't matter whom you vote for, it matters who takes office.)
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To: Hodar

I’d like this idiot reporter to name 5 democrats that ever crossed over the aisle to support a republican, and in what year........


36 posted on 05/11/2010 4:06:34 PM PDT by goat granny
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