Senator Robert Bennett of Utah would be considered, by any reasonable standard, to be a solid conservative Republican, certainly in no way a liberal or moderate.
This man, a Mormon whose father Wallace Bennett served in the Senate before him; the grandson of the seventh president of the Mormon Church; and married to the granddaughter of the ninth President of the Mormon Church–was unable to win a fourth term nomination at the Republican State convention today!
What stood in the way of this senator, who voted against abortion, affirmative action, gay rights and marriage, health care reform, energy standards proposals, even emergency funding for Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina–and for the Patriot Act and tighter immigration controls, and repeal of the inheritance tax and support of the flat tax which favors the most wealthy taxpayers, among many other votes?
You would not believe that the vote which doomed Senator Bennett as NOT conservative enough, was his decision to support, as many others in the Senate and House did, the “bailout” of Wall Street institutions introduced by the Bush Administration in the fall of 2008, and continued in 2009 by President Obama’s Administration!
This event, the rejection of Senator Bennett, is an example of the absolutely sickening, crazy, loony Tea Party Movement’s influence, and a warning to Senator John McCain, Governor Charlie Crist and many others–establishment Republicans with a solid record of accomplishments for conservative causes–but also an element of individualism and maverick nature who DARED to use their brain, rather than ideology, to do what was the proper thing to do in a dire emergency, as we had not seen or experienced in 80 years!
The fact that what the US government has done has indeed worked toward the beginning of an economic revival does not matter to these lunatics! They are such “puritans” regarding their backwards ideology that they do not care what harm they do to the party which has best represented their right wing interests for all these years!
This is a warning to the GOP–continue to embrace the Tea Party extremists–and IF the American people have any common sense, these right wing rebels will be rejected at the polls this November!
Obviously, SOME of these characters will manage to get through and poison the political atmosphere, but Democrats MUST do whatever they can to keep the ship of state on an even keel, as a Tea Party takeover of American politics would be the triumph of insanity and harm the long term future of the United States!
By the way, there is the possibility that Senator Bennett will wage a write-in campaign for his seat, since this rejection was not in a primary where all registered Republicans could vote. With a famous name in Utah politics, and 18 years in the Senate behind him, it could occur that Senator Bennett will yet overcome the wingnuts who defeated him in the state convention today! For a state that is solidly conservative Republican, his eventual write in victory is the best that could be hoped for!
This is great news… This means that the tea party will select all the right wing radicals for the senate, which no intelligent democrat or independant will vote for a person so far to the right. So in reality they are “digging their own grave” and I am loving every minute or it. I find the Tea Party to be a group of uneducated extreamists and hopefully the outcome of these elections in November they will learn it is not benifcial to be too polarized in any direction.