In Utah. Utah!
Republican Sen. Bob Bennett was thrown out of office Saturday by delegates at the Utah GOP convention in a stunning defeat for a once-popular three-term incumbent who fell victim to a growing conservative movement nationwide.
Bennett’s failure to make it into Utah’s GOP primary ? let alone win his party’s nomination ? makes him the first congressional incumbent to be ousted this year and demonstrates the difficult challenges candidates are facing from the right in 2010.
I don’t know much about Utah’s nominating process, but apparently 3,500 delegates get to decide who’s going to run for Senator in Utah; the other 3 million or so voters have to lump it.
The poor guy voted in favor of the bailout, co-sponsored a health care reform bill which never even got a vote, and generally was too liberal (!) for the lunatic fringe.
I find it difficult, especially now that we know more about what was involved, to fault *anyone* for pulling the plug on someone who voted for the bailout.
I don’t know what alternative you suggested then or would suggest instead now, but I know damned well that none of the clowns who voted against this guy ever thought of any alternative but “Hell No.”
Not that I care much about Bennett, but the Tea Party people are aiming toward anarchy.
I’m seeing this as the first step in the Tea Party ripping the Republican Party apart from the inside. Bennett isn’t anyone I would ever support, but he does have a connection to reality. that’s fatal at this point.