Posted on 07/08/2014 6:01:59 AM PDT by cotton1706
ABILENE, Kan. — Eric Cantor had just lost his job in astonishing fashion, and official Washington was trying to make sense of what happened. But the defeat of the House majority leader triggered a more visceral reaction from Republican Pat Roberts of Kansas.
“I might be next,” a deadly serious Roberts recalled telling fellow GOP Sen. Bob Corker during a ride on the Senate subway. “You never know.”
Roberts has emerged as a case study of the personal and professional toll even a nominal challenge from the right can take on a sitting senator — and a vivid illustration of the impact the tea party can have even when it loses, as it has in nearly every GOP Senate primary this year. Roberts is widely expected to survive an Aug. 5 faceoff against tea party-backed Milton Wolf, whose campaign has been treading water for months. But at 78 and now in his fourth decade in Congress, the senator nonetheless has the look of a changed man. He has appeared increasingly on edge, several of his colleagues say, and his voting pattern, according to rankings by conservative groups, has shifted markedly to the right.
A onetime Marine who began his congressional career the same month that Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president, Roberts has never been the cheeriest guy in the Senate. But the challenge by Wolf, whose biggest claim to fame is that he’s a distant cousin of Barack Obama, has sent the senator into a frequent state of agitation.
“Interview is over,” Roberts snapped in May at a reporter who pressed him on whether election-year calculations prompted him to call on former Democratic Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to resign as Health and Human Services chief even though he had strongly backed her nomination.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
It’s not the reasons you think Pat. You’ve clearly shown signs of bad judgment and dementia the last few years. We need someone strong and of sound mind to lead the way. Also someone that has a little more tread eft on their tires as well.
I wish I had better options but as a Kansas voter, I’ll have to go with Milton Wolf, if only to get another incumbent out of office. 4 decades is too long.
So who are they investing in, then?
It’s not the reasons you think Pat. You’ve clearly shown signs of bad judgment and dementia the last few years. We need someone strong and of sound mind to lead the way. Also someone that has a little more tread left on their tires as well.
“I wish I had better options but as a Kansas voter, I’ll have to go with Milton Wolf, if only to get another incumbent out of office. 4 decades is too long.”
Careful! When “Kansas58” wakes up you’re going to get a whole page on this thread about what a wonderful “conservative” Pat is.
Yeah, he’s obviously in Pat’s pocket - don’t care. He’s old, needs to retire. We need new blood in Congress and I will do my part to put it there, especially tea party blood.
Pat Roberts graduated from Kansas State University in 1957. He served in the Marine Corps and then moved to Arizona where he worked as a journalist. In 1969, he was hired by Representative Keith Sebelius, a Republican from Western Kansas. He moved to Washington and has been there ever since.
His father was the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, so he has been annointed to every job that he has ever had in politics. He has never had to answer to ordinary voters and believes that constituent services means taking care of lobbyists in Agri business and aviation.
His move to the right is for election purposes only. Once reelected to what will be his last term, he will revert to form and once again be one of the Democrats favorite Republican. That’s why the political elites are so supportive.
Pat has been a good Senator for Kansas, and probably would be for another term, but...
politicians and diapers need changed often, and for the same reason.
It is very difficult to unseat an incumbent in a primary short of pictures of drugs and hookers. The Tea Party has been shockingly successful in getting any wins. That is sort of left out of the article.
I have to say that changing the voting habits of some is a neat trick. But when the vote really matters on the big stuff...
Pat has been a good Senator for Kansas, and probably would be for another term, but...
....yeaaaah, right... cheerleading for the biggest abortionist Gov was great for Kansas... ??is this still a conservative forum??
ymmv
I’m supporting Wolf - gotta problem?
....just the uncritical eye...
So Kathleen Sebelius is his old boss’s daughter-in-law. How cozy. At least I helps me to understand how she elected.
Too damn old!!!
Too damn unreliable!!!
RETIRE HIM!!! If it has to be a D. then so be it.
It’s time for a change, Pat. I like you, have voted for you in the past, have supported you, but it’s time for a change.
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