Posted on 05/09/2010 12:31:19 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Bennett’s Loss in Utah a ‘Damn Outrage,’ ‘Non-Violent Coup,’ Part of Larger Intolerant GOP Narrative By Brent Baker Created 05/09/2010 - 14:41
“This is a damn outrage,” a disgusted David Brooks, the faux conservative columnist for the New York Times, declared on Sunday’s Meet the Press reacting to Republican Senator Bob Bennett’s loss Saturday at Utah’s Republican convention which chose two others to compete in a June primary for the seat. Brooks fretted he was punished for being “a good conservative who was trying to get things done” by “bravely” working with Democrats on health care and supporting TARP. “Now,” he repeated, “he's losing his career over that. And it's just a damn outrage.”
Sitting beside Brooks on NBC’s roundtable, liberal Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr,. a former New York Times correspondent, saw “almost a non-violent coup because they denied the sitting Senator even a chance of getting on the primary ballot.”
Over on Fox News Sunday, NPR’s Juan Williams expressed exasperation: “This is evidence of how the American political center is losing, on the right wing of the party a guy like Bob Bennett, who is a right-wing conservative, is being driven out because he’s not sufficiently conservative?”
ABC’s Jake Tapper brought Rudy Giuliani aboard This Week to address the handling of the Times Square botched bomber, but wouldn’t let him go before bringing up Bennett’s defeat as proof of an intolerant GOP: “Are you worried at all that the Republican Party is not only growing more hostile to more liberal to moderate Republicans such as yourself, but also conservative Republicans who are shown to, at least shown an ability to work with Democrats?”
Later, during the roundtable, George Will answered the presumption Bennett was the victim of an ideological purity test:
This is an anti-Washington year. How do you get more Washington than a three-term Senator who occupies the seat once held by his father, a four-term Senator, who before that worked on the Senate staff and then as a lobbyist in Washington? He’s a wonderful man and a terrific Senator. But the fact is, he’s going against terrific head-winds this year and he cast three votes: TARP, stimulus and an individual mandate for health care. Now, you might like one, two or all three of those, but being opposed to them is not outside the mainstream of American political argument.
Brooks admired those very votes from Bennett, hailing the Wyden-Bennett health plan as “a substantive, serious bill, a bipartisan bill, with strong conservative and some liberal support. So he did something sort of brave by working with Democrats which more Senators should do and now they've been sent a message to him don’t do that.”
As if this would convince conservatives, Dionne pointed to how “you just had an election in Britain where David Cameron, the conservative, almost got a majority by saying we need to de-toxicfy, take the rough edges off conservatism, appeal to a broader constituency.” But he didn’t get a majority with that approach!
From the May 9 Meet the Press:
DAVID BROOKS: This is a damn outrage, to be honest. This is a guy who was a good Senator and he was a good Senator and a good conservative, but a good conservative who was trying to get things done. The Wyden-Bennett bill, which he co-sponsored -- if you took the health care economists in the country, they would probably be for that bill, ideally. It was a substantive, serious bill, a bipartisan bill, with strong conservative and some liberal support. So he did something sort of brave by working with Democrats which more Senators should do and now they've been sent a message to him don’t do that.
The second thing is the TARP. Nobody liked the TARP. But we were in a complete economic meltdown and sometimes you have to do terrible things. And we're in a much better economic place because of the TARP. So he bravely cast a vote that nobody wanted to really cast and now he's losing his career over that. And it's just a damn outrage.
E.J. DIONNE: I agree with David on this. And I think that something’s happening inside the Republican Party that I think in the long run won't be good for the Republican Party. You just had an election in Britain where David Cameron, the conservative, almost got a majority by saying we need to de-toxicfy, take the rough edges off conservatism, appeal to a broader constituency. And here you have a state party convention, by the way, not a primary. It's almost a non-violent coup because they denied the sitting Senator even a chance of getting on the primary ballot. And I think the party in the long run risks a backlash among voters who may not be liberal at all, but don't like this kind of politics.
And before people on the right crow too much about this, it is a party convention in Utah. I would imagine the left would win a party convention on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. So let's not, sort of, make this into a bigger thing than it is. But it is a big deal to dump somebody like Bob Bennett.
From Fox News Sunday:
JUAN WILLIAMS: This is evidence of how the American political center is losing, on the right wing of the party a guy like Bob Bennett, who is a right-wing conservative, is being driven out because he’s not sufficiently conservative?...If I lived in Utah, I’m going to give up Bob Bennett and his seniority and connections?
BILL KRISTOL: Why do you need the seniority? To bring the pork home?
WILLIAMS: To bring the pork home?
KRISTOL: That’s worked well over the last several years.
WILLIAMS: Oh, so you’d sit here and say, “oh TARP was terrible, bailouts were terrible,” even though we saved ourselves from depression? That’s rational? That’s good, inspired caring about America?
Ain't it, though? Imagine, a free people exercising their Constitutional right to a republican form of government, deciding for whatever reason they choose that enough is enough, they will send someone else to Washington on their behalf. Shocking, simply shocking.
David Brooks is a !amn outrage.
You read my mind. I almost wrote Orin Hatch should be next. While we don’t need firebrands we sure as hell don’t need soft Republicans who are all ready to compromise and don’t act as good standard bearers of the constitution. Career politicians are our problem, they are used to going along with the same phony debates where the question isn’t whether the sovereign citizen is going to get screwed or not but merely a question of how much.
“You can tell you’re on the right track by the people you piss off.”
I like Ted Nugent’s quote, also: “You can tell you’re over the target if you’re taking flak!”
Bingo! Record the names of the elected ‘Pubs and Party officials who are bitching about Bennett and put them on the list for retirement.
That wasn't the sole reason, but one might think so from the news coverage. I've been noticing the written and TV reports on the Bennett story, and TARP, the stimulus and his working with the Dims on part of Obamacare have been mentioned. But what no report has mentioned is that Bennett voted Yes on amnesty for illegals.
I guarantee the his amnesty vote was a reason for many who opposed him (just as Utah threw out Chris Cannon), but you'd never know it from the news coverage. It's as if they just don't want to mention his Yes on amnesty.
Your speculation is wildly wrong. Both Rove and Cheney endorsed Bennett. Google it.
Agreed. WE can be the firebrands.
Yea, they bamboozled a large number. Still they don't get it.
“it IS A Depression.”
Not even close!
What’s needed is a depression as bad or worse than the 30s!
“The choice was that or let the economy crash. “
That’s exactly what is needed and it could happen yet!!!
A full blown depression as bad or worse than the 30s is what is desperatly needed!!!!
Is nobody on the talking heads going to call this “Democracy in action”, which is what it is?
I love to watch RINO’s whine!
Somebody draw a warm bath so David can wash the sand out of his nether parts.
Evidently Mitt Romney’s endorsement didn’t actually work?
If this is what the people in his state want why are people so upset? Bennett needs to be gracious and move on.
The cockroaches have awakend the Orkin Man. Scurry, scurry now, little men.
Thomas Sowell himself supported the initial TARP bailout - he admits as much, while saying it was a mistake. When the waters are muddied enough that even Thomas Sowell loses his bearings momentarily, you have to cut Bennett a little slack on that one. How do you know that the next guy will do any better when the next storm hits?But then there's the other two issues on top of that.
the fact is, he’s going against terrific head-winds this year and he cast three votes: TARP, stimulus and an individual mandate for health care. Now, you might like one, two or all three of those, but being opposed to them is not outside the mainstream of American political argument. - George WillI think that those last two votes were stinkers. And I think that putting incumbents on notice that they don't have sinecures can be done in no other way than denying renomination to someone who seems to have gotten too comfortable. And, IMHO, the sending of that message to Republican incumbents is precisely what upset Williams and Dionne. Because while in reality they hold no brief for Democrats going along with Republicans, they feel entitled to expect Republicans to be more bipartisan than the Democrats. This action by Utah Republicans rejects that assumption.
Cleaning the sewer, that is this Congress, one RAT and one RINO at a time.
They can start packing now; we want them vacating We The People’s house ASAP after November.
Who is David’s main butt-buddy these days?
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