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?
If he voted for TARP and Obamacare he's not a conservative at all...at best he's a RINO.
Good on ya Jim!!
Wake Up America!
Brooks is entitled to his beliefs, and he should try to accurately state his beliefs when asked (which I think he does). However, he is no conservative. How would you have to define “conservative” to include Brooks’s views. “NYT liberal” comes to mind; and if that’s the definition of “conservative,” there is no sense in having such a word and no reason to have conservatives.
I'm surprised at you, m’lady.
You are usually spot on. Not in this instance though. TARP never saves anybody from no depression. Juan Williams doesn't know what he's talking about, as usual.
Couldn't have said it better. I am scratching my head here. For Libs (however they label themselves), anything that happens that they don't like -- especially when someone, most anyone, is held accountable by those to whom they are accountable -- is (1) "unfair" and (2) an "outrage."
TARP was a scam and don’t give me that nonsense about paying the money back. With what, other bailout money? Phony ‘profits’ from cooking their books and lying about the value of their ‘assets’?
$700B down a rathole saving failed institutions so we could kick the can down the road and pretend that our zombie economy is ‘saved’?? Complete hogwash. Totally unnecessary.
If the feds were going to pony up dough for anything, it should have been to cover FDIC insurance on the failed banks and let the big banks FAIL. WTF is the FDIC even there for if not to do just that??!?!
And with the 700B down the hole, 150+ banks failed last year and another 60+ so far this year. So, $700B bought us a slow bleed instead of a clearing of the system. Woo hoo. Let’s all stare blankly at CNBC and look at the pretend ‘green shoots’!
Propping up failed businesses, whether they are car companies or banks, is a destructive distortion of the system, rewarding failure and penalizing success.
That may be the kind of crony-capitalist utopia that you and Juan Williams want to live in, but I’ll pass.
It’s a damn outrage that soft conservatives like Bennet have been allowed to continue representing deep red states. Utah should replace Hatch next. All the Red states need to clean house. We don’t want to get more government programs we don’t want mote bailouts we don’t want more spending we are damn outraged by it and rightly do! These people in power act as though the economy didn’t collasp they act as though they and their big money dinars had nothing to do with it they act as though we should applaud them fir trying to get things done that we don’t want done! David Brooks can look at this battle as a battle to claim the stays quo we are Americans and we want to reclaim our constitutional heritage and stop the train driven by senile old men and hedonistic socialists and plot a route back to greatness. We do not believe liberalism social and fiscal is inevitable we don’t believe change is good regardless of result we don’t believe America’s best days are behind us we believe they are ahead of us and we will fight to take down anyone who stands in our way in pursuit of that goal.
The howlers are going to howl as the governments get downsized (or worse). Look at Greece and watch the dominoes.
We tried it there way letting Lehman fail messy and it blew up. They don't want to admit their policy preference is unrealistic and unworkable in the real world.
On the rest of it, there is no right to office, no tenure, in a republic, and tough toenails for the former senator.
“Brooks - “he’s losing his career over that. And it’s just a damn outrage.” Career? This is the exact mindset that conservatives have been fighting. It’s not “his” seat. Bennett served at the pleasure of his constituents and no longer had their backing.”
Exactly. ‘Politician’ in the USA was not meant to be a ‘career’. And we’ve seen what doing so has got us, most of the time...Ted Kennedy, John McCain, et al. I’m conflicted over term limits, but we’ve got to try something. If the person is a good public servant he can always run for another office.
Ironic isn’t it? Short memories.......
A FINE BROMANCE
Tune: “A Fine Romance”
http://wtv-zone.com/REMEMBERTHEN/midis21/a-fine-romance.mid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVkoLBc-cuA&feature=related
As sung by David Brooks to Barack Obama
A fine bromance, like no other
A fine bromance, my Brooks brother
Barack and Brooks—it’s mutual admiration
Your rock-star looks are causin’ a strange sensation
A fine bromance, though you’re frazzled
A fine bromance, I’m bedazzled
I like to stare at the crease in your well-pressed pants
I’ve widened up my stance
This is a fine bromance
A fine bromance, we’re pie-chartin’
You make bromance that’s bi-partisan
You’re cooler than the clams that are down in the seaweed
You cast a glance my way and I get all wee-weed
A fine bromance, you’re my Marx guy
When we slow-dance, you make sparks fly
You make me have to cancel my “No we cant’s”
You’ve got me in a trance
This is a fine bromance
A fine bromance, with no disses
A fine bromance, Barack, this is
The “right” may be the box that a guy like I’m in
But I’m the kind that writes for the New York Times in
A fine bromance, my dear comrade
A fine bromance, like you and Rahm had
I feel a tingle running now up my pants
I’ve widened up my stance
This is a fine bromance
Yes, indeed, it’s time to stop the spending.
I have no argument with people voting Senator Bennett out of office — none whatsoever.
But when I read another article where a person claimed TARP as their sole reason for doing so, I just shook my head.
It is the people’s Senate seat. The people will determine who sits in it.
Do u really believe TARP and the bailouts of Fannie and Freddie, saved us from a depression? I think TARP guarantees a future depression much worst than anything we were facing in 2008 because it saved the corrupt politicians and corporations that caused the meltdown.
Now we’ve got the same villians operating the same schemes with a proven guarantee: that most people, including conservatives like yourself believe the government is acting properly when it gives thieves trillions of dollars it confiscates from honest hard working people.
All TARP did was delay the collapse and guarantee that it will be orders of magnitude GREATER when it DOES happen.
Exactly, huge profits come with risk. We’ve taken the risk away.
I will be happy if we can just get rid of Senators Lugar and McCain.
Nothing is down a rathole but your rhetoric.
You don't like the fact that it worked, that doesn't mean it didn't. It didn't cost you a dime, but you hate the fact that it benefitted men you didn't want to see benefitted - tough toenails.
God how you knuckledragging finance haters steam me. You aren't conservatives at all, you are radical ideologues and you belong in your own communist party, not in mine.
It’s always a good thing when Juan Williams doesn’t sgree with something the GOP is doing. It usuallu means the GOP is doing somethimg right.
“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?”
The Democrats have been taken over by the extreme left long ago, culminating in their chosing the most left wing candidate in American history as their candidate in 2008.
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