Robert Bennett

The Senate Tea Party Caucus: A Trio Avoided By Other Republicans!

Ronald Leave a comment

The Senate Tea Party Caucus, a newly formed group, recently had its first meeting, one attended more by activists and media people than members of the Republican caucus in the Senate!

The membership consists of three Senators, none of whom cause a reaction more than that of rolling one’s eyes and shaking one’s head in a negative fashion!

So who are the illustrious members of this “distinguished” group?

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, arguably the leading “flame thrower” in the Republican Senate caucus, has no problem bad mouthing other Republicans who wish to avoid being as outrageous and disgraceful as he has been! Rumor has it that he is considering a run for President, as he seems to admire himself in the mirror! LOL

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky makes one wonder how Congressman Ron Paul might not wish to disown him as his son, as he is proving to be a true headline hunter, with his nutty libertarian views that one wonders about his sanity and stability. More about this will be explained in a future entry on this blog!

Senator Mike Lee of Utah, also new to the Senate as Rand Paul is, has no problem being seen in the extreme. It is a sad point of fact that Senator Robert Bennett, a mainstream conservative, lost his seat in the Utah primary to this character, who wishes to be noticed for how outrageous he can be!

What is more interesting is how other Republicans elected to the Senate, who were considered Tea Party favorites, chose to find excuses rather than attend the Tea Party Caucus meeting.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin apparently had second thoughts about joining this group of three, as they realized the bad image it would present for them as they begin their careers in the Senate. At least, they have some common sense and rational nature, which cannot be said about DeMint, Paul, and Lee!

Meanwhile, the Tea Party Movement seems bent on defeating Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch in the 2012 Republican Senate primaries. In so doing, they are setting out to destroy the Republican Party and just might succeed at that venture!

Sad Ending On DREAM Act: “The American Dream” Denied To Young Illegal Immigrants Who Wish To Contribute To The Only Nation They Know! :(

Ronald Leave a comment

A very sad development yesterday in the US Senate was the denial of an opportunity for young illegal immigrants who were brought to this country as babies or very young children, and never have done anything illegal, but are being denied the right to move toward citizenship by pursuing college or entering the military.

These children are not lawbreakers, even if their parents are, and they have no memory of their former homeland. They have been discriminated against, and just wished to pursue the “American dream” that we hear so much about, but the Republicans in the Senate, except for three courageous souls, refused to allow such an opportunity.

The only three Republicans who voted in favor of cloture to end the filibuster by their party on the proposed DREAM Act were Richard Lugar of Indiana, Robert Bennett of Utah, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

However, since the vote, with four Senators not present, was 55-41, we must also look at the five Democrats who voted against the DREAM Act–Kay Hagen of North Carolina, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Jon Tester and Max Baucus of Montana. These five Senators did not show reasonable justification for their votes, and should rightfully be condemned for their vote.

With this defeat, and with the reality of GOP control of the House of Representatives for the next two years, and fewer Democrats in the Senate as well, it is unlikely that the DREAM Act or anything similar to it will have any fortune in the next few years.

But the battle for immigration reform, including giving opportunities to children who have done no wrong except being born to the “wrong” parents, will continue, and with the growing Latino population in this country, eventually human rights and civil rights will come to these deserving children of illegal immigrants!

Conventional Wisdom On Incumbents Being In Trouble May Be Wrong!

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It has been said that this is the year that incumbents will lose seats in Congress on a large scale, but at least in the primaries, it turns out that only SEVEN incumbents have lost, which means more than 98 percent of all incumbents have won renomination!

Of course, Election Day in November could see a massive wave of incumbents losing to their challengers, but at least so far, that is NOT the trend!

Three Senators–Robert Bennett of Utah, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska,–have lost renomination, but Murkowski is running a write in campaign and is seen as running evenly with the person who defeated her in the primary–Joe Miller–, and has a good chance of being only the second person to win a Senate seat by write in votes, after Strom Thurmond of South Carolina in 1954!

Four Congressmen have lost–Parker Griffith of Alabama, Bob Inglis of South Carolina, Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan! This is about average in any congressional election year, occurring every even year. And this round, the losers are three Democrats and four Republicans!

So standard thoughts may just be such, and not be the action of the electorate in November! Again, we shall see, very soon!