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Bennett: McConnell Has 'Isolated' Cruz and the Tea Party
Utah Policy ^ | November 17, 2014 | Bryan Schott

Posted on 11/18/2014 12:55:50 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Former Sen. Bob Bennett says even though Republicans are set to take over Congress come January, don't expect Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee to set the agenda.

Bennett, speaking at a conference in Washington, says Sen. Mitch McConnell, who will be majority leader in the next Congress, has done a masterful job of "isolating" Ted Cruz.

"There is no cannier politician in Washington than Mitch McConnell," said Bennett. "Yes, Ted Cruz is an unsettling factor within the Republican conference. My sense of things is Mitch has very carefully, very methodically, very much under the radar isolated Ted Cruz. He's kind of sealed him off like a body puts a sac around some foreign matter it would prefer to expel but, if it can't, it can at least cut it off."

Bennett says McConnell's work has diluted the power of the Tea Party Caucus in the Senate.

"When the Tea Party Caucus was formed it was going to be so powerful. We heard all about it in Utah when Mike Lee was elected," said Bennett, who was ousted by Lee in 2010. "Lee said 'I'm going to have all these buddies and we're going to take over.' By the time McConnell was finished, the Tea Party Caucus was Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Jim DeMint, and DeMint left."

Bennett says at this point the power of the Tea Party in the next Congress will be more mythical than reality.

"Rand Paul didn't join and Marco Rubio didn't join. Cruz is going to look around and find that there are not going to be very many people with him."

Here's the video courtesy of C-SPAN.


TOPICS: Kentucky; Texas; Utah; Parties; U.S. Senate
KEYWORDS: 2014; bobbennett; jimdemint; kentucky; marcorubio; mcconnell; mikelee; mitchmcconnell; randpaul; senate; teaparty; tedcruz; texas; utah
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Bitter clinger?
1 posted on 11/18/2014 12:55:51 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Poor Bob, still has tear tracks on his cheeks from Mike Lee dumping him.

McConnell is an old man. This is his last hurrah.

Cruz and Lee will be setting agendas for decades to come.

And their new friends named Ernst, Lankford, Cotton...and more.


2 posted on 11/18/2014 12:58:56 PM PST by Regulator
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Former Senator Bob Bennett ... who really knows about being ISOLATED.
3 posted on 11/18/2014 12:59:04 PM PST by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Sure glad we got that majority! See kids? Voting for R’s because they’re R’s really works!


4 posted on 11/18/2014 1:00:12 PM PST by dware (3 prohibited topics in mixed company: politics, religion and operating systems...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Senator Bennett does not realize that Sen. Cruz has a bright future.


5 posted on 11/18/2014 1:00:40 PM PST by Biggirl (2014 MIdterms Were BOTH A Giant Wave And Restraining Order)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Cruz is going to look around and find that there are not going to be very many people with him.”

Except the American people who apparently don’t matter to Bennett.


6 posted on 11/18/2014 1:00:43 PM PST by jospehm20
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; Kale; Jarhead9297; COUNTrecount; notaliberal; DoughtyOne; RitaOK; MountainDad; ...
Ted Cruz Ping!

If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.

Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!
7 posted on 11/18/2014 1:00:51 PM PST by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Asshat.

RINOs to the core..


8 posted on 11/18/2014 1:00:56 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Revolution is a'brewin!!!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

9 posted on 11/18/2014 1:01:36 PM PST by jimbo123
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Rand Paul didn’t join and Marco Rubio didn’t join”

Closet democrats don’t usually caucus with Republicans.


10 posted on 11/18/2014 1:03:04 PM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: Resolute Conservative

Er... I meant “with Conservatives”


11 posted on 11/18/2014 1:03:42 PM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Oh yeah, McConnell is soooo smart. And he has a spine of steel. And nothing succeeds like triangulating and dissing your base.


12 posted on 11/18/2014 1:04:03 PM PST by DaxtonBrown (http://www.futurnamics.com/reid.php)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Somehow I don’t think we have heard the last of Ted Cruz and the Tea Party. For anyone to summarily write the conservatives off, due to McConnell has “masterfully isolated them” - they are, themselves, trying to craft the agenda.


13 posted on 11/18/2014 1:04:07 PM PST by NEMDF
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

See what happens when conservatives vote for RINOs?

RINOs are the evilest bunch because they turn on their own grassroots.


14 posted on 11/18/2014 1:04:08 PM PST by donna (Pray for revival.)
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To: dware
Sure glad we got that majority! See kids? Voting for R’s because they’re R’s really works!

If Bennett were still in the Senate, that'd be a good point. But, Bennett wasn't even enough of a prognosticator to stop Mike Lee from beating him. He is as authoritative on the subject as "Jumpin'" Jim Jeffords.
15 posted on 11/18/2014 1:04:59 PM PST by Dr. Sivana ("If you're litigating against nuns, you've probably done something wrong."-Ted Cruz)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Was this the Epic Losers Conference? The TEA Party has been buried more times than beef bones in a dog pound. Yet this loser cheers himself by declaring them dead once again.

It only takes a spark of freedom to start a prairie fire that will consume tha carefully constructed layers of oppressions weighing us down.


16 posted on 11/18/2014 1:05:24 PM PST by txrefugee
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The GOPe is all about holding their powerbase intact. They know their rank and file are conservatives but they screw us at every turn. That’s OK. These fools can enjoy their last years in power. Tea Party people are going nowhere.


17 posted on 11/18/2014 1:05:42 PM PST by dowcaet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Rand Paul and Marco Rubio didn’t join because they had a separate agenda of their own that was in opposition to the conservative agenda.

Rand Paul isn’t even a RINO, he’s the anti-Republican, who only acts like a Republican when he thinks there is something to gain. Rand Paul stands for nothing but Rand Paul.


18 posted on 11/18/2014 1:05:53 PM PST by Eva
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To: Resolute Conservative

Rand Paul is in the Rand Paul caucus now. Rubio pretty got dis-invited from the caucus when he f’d up so badly siding with Shumer and Durbin against the conservatives.

I am not totally sour on Rubio, but make no mistake, he is hated by many a conservative now in Florida.


19 posted on 11/18/2014 1:06:14 PM PST by ilgipper
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Step aside RINOs. All your GOP belong to us.


20 posted on 11/18/2014 1:08:53 PM PST by RedMDer (May we always be happy and may our enemies always know it. - Sarah Palin, 10-18-2010)
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