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?
You don't have a clue about me and you're proving you are a fool. You don't give me anything, jerk. I earn every damn penny!
bring back duelling!
And he promosised he would only stay for TWO!
He’s just throwing up straw men because he has no real argument. I learned this about him a while back. He’s an expert at pretending that he knows what he’s talking about, but when it comes down to brass tacks, he’s nothing but a shill for bailouts and huge government crony-capitalism. And a rather mindless one at that.
In other words, JasonC is a textbook definition of a fascist. He tells people like you and me that we’re not conservative, because he thinks that in order to be conservative, you need to think like a fascist.
You are mistaken, Jason.
Exactly! We opened our business with our money and didn't ask the government for a damn thing. Too bad the government can't say the same thing.
at least shown an ability to work with Democrats?”
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Work with Marxists! Huh!
Listen! Communism is a viciously evil idea that when born should have been drowned in a bucket!
Who might 'we' be in your world, Jason?!
He can say anything he wants it just doesn't make it true. I think I know what capitalism is since we have been running a business for over 30 years. I'll listen to him when he can put his money where his mouth is (without government funds).
If you are a RINO turd we are coming after your sorry ass.
If you are a democrat we are coming after your sorry ass.
If you are not a Reagan smaller govt conservative we are coming after your sorry ass.
Fact is, if you are a d.c. insider, we are coming after your sorry ass.
LOL...you’ll probably be waiting a while.
Folks like us who own businesses don’t count as capitalists in Jason’s world. If you and I fail, we don’t get a bailout. And if we succeed, we have to pay for everyone else’s.
Trying to figure out what this means, what’s outrageous? Free elections, the right of the people to chose their representatives, democracy in action? What exactly is the outrage?I wish somebody had the guts to ask this clown this question to his face, on the air. But I guess that's not possible.
Noticed that as well. What it tells me is that the Inside-the-Beltway crowd still thinks that the country has ratcheted permanently to the Left courtesy of their Anointed One - and yes, 0bama was Brooks' Anointed One - and that somehow the Tea Party stuff isn't real. This panel, and I do not entirely exempt Kristol, are so used to fluff, image, and PR sizzle that they're in a flopsweat panic when a genuine political movement turns up.
Bennett didn't lose his career, he lost his seat. It will be filled by someone less prone to compromise with the Powers That Be (or that individual will be looking for work too), who this panel of throne-kissers think is some sort of a permanent ruling class with themselves members in good standing. The piggies are squealing because something's pricking all of them, not just the ones with (D) after their names.
Only WWII pulled the country out of FDR’s disastrous mismanagement of the economy. Millions of men drafted into the military certainly increased the employment numbers for those left at home.The draft certainly had an effect but bigger than the draft was the fact that FDR wanted to win the war more than he wanted to continue his socialist policies and in a tactical decision to increase economic activity to boost the war effort he removed many of the most onerous restrictions on business activity in America.
That's really why the depression ended with the war.
Oh my ... I can only imagine how they will whine after November.
“I agree with Juan Williams in this instance.”
Well maybe I agree with Juan in a very superficial sense. But NEVER forget that it was long term government intervention that actually placed us on the precipice. It was so-called Republican moderates that worked with Democrats over the years that permitted the leftists to drag us to the edge of that economic cliff.
Working with people that are out to destroy the fundamental workings of your government, the Constitution and the cultural values that made us successful(Christian heritage, for example)is the equivalent of digging your own grave before you are executed.
Earmarks and pork, I agree, are repulsive, but that is not what has us in trouble. It is the bloated Federal government bureaucracy and entitlements: Social security retirement age, health benefits, negative income tax (that is tax credits, and, more than 47% need to be paying tax, free lunch programs, education grants, welfare payments . . . and the list goes on and on and on.
I have only read a few of the comments above, so I’m probably repeating someone’s earlier point. Here are the two money quotes, IMO:
“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.”
“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?”
Notice in the second remark (Juan Williams) that the reason Bennett is worth reelecting is he is well connected.
This shows that Williams doesn’t understand Tea Partiers yet. It also demonstrates that he is a political hack.
Exactly!
Buddy, if you were smart enough to actually read English, you’d see I AM AGGREING WITH YOU!!!!
Geez go over to DU and pick a fight with someone.
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