Hatch: 'I'm no Bob Bennett' (RINO running scared ahead of potential 2012 challenge from Tea Party)

The Hill, Washington, DC ^ | 2010-10-15 | Michael O'Brien

[rabscuttle385]

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) stressed Friday he has no intentions of following down the path of his Utah colleague, Sen. Bob Bennett (R).

During an appearance on Bloomberg's "Political Capital With Al Hunt" set to air this weekend, Hatch, who's up for reelection in 2012, talked down the prospect of losing to a conservative primary challenger the way Bennett did earlier this year.

“I like Bob Bennett. I felt like he was a great senator. But I'm no Bob Bennett," Hatch said of his colleague, who lost at a state party convention to Mike Lee, the new GOP candidate for Senate and probable victor in the state's Senate race.

Hatch is one of a crop of veteran GOP senators who are looking to learn lessons from the 2010 primary cycle, which saw incumbent senators such as Bennett and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) lose their primary races against insurgent conservative activists tied to the Tea Party movement.

The veteran senator said he's already begun reaching out to his state's Tea Partiers and stressed his conservatism relative to the forcibly retired Bennett.

[AnAmericanMother]

Or, perhaps more appropriate, the naughty Mr. Gillray having a shot at Napoleon Bonaparte:

[Vigilanteman]

I can honestly think of only one Senator in my lifetime, who successfully resisted the siren call of the Beltway and that was Jesse Helms.

Jesse was one of a kind and the only one who ever got better the longer he stayed in Washington.

Nobody did more to keep America free in the last century except for the great Ronald Reagan himself.

I pray to God that he will give us more leaders like Jesse and RR.