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 ...
It’s the San Francisco Chronicle. If they had reported it any other way it’d be surprising.
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.
Very clever. :-)
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.
Sooo...they're suckers!
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.
Isn’t it AMAZING how worried left wing reporters are about the republican party!!
What center. There is no center. Either you are for America or you are against.
“Most of the Dems in the Tea Party are Truman democrats, they havent 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.
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 hes 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.
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...
A brief flicker!
And everybody thought that little ten watt bulb over Boxer's head was completely 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.
I’d like this idiot reporter to name 5 democrats that ever crossed over the aisle to support a republican, and in what year........
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.