Live as a R.I.N.O. die as a R.I.N.O.

[jimpeel]

Big government expansion R.I.N.O.s will be biting the dust along with the big government expansion democrats. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

SOURCE

Updated May 08, 2010
Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett Ousted in Re-Election Bid

By Jake Gibson

- FOXNews.com

Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah has lost his bid to serve a fourth term after failing to advance past the GOP state convention.



Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah has been ousted in his bid to serve a fourth term after failing to make it out of the Utah GOP convention.

Attorney Mike Lee and businessman Tim Bridgewater are the remaining Republican candidates after Saturday's vote. After a third round of voting, neither nominee received 60 percent of the vote, so both will head to the Utah primary on June 22.

Bennett was a distant third in the second round of voting among nearly 3,500 delegates, netting about 27 percent of the vote.

Wiping away tears, Bennett called the political atmosphere "toxic" and said it's, "Clear some of the votes I've cast have added to that toxic environment, looking back with one or two minor exceptions, I wouldn't cast any any differently, even if I knew it would cost me my career."

The three-term senator was targeted by Tea Party activists and other groups for supporting the first traunch of TARP, or Troubled Assets Relief Program.

Bennett, 76, is the first incumbent to lose his seat in Washington this year.

Critics also say Bennett broke a promise he made during his initial campaign to only serve two terms. He was vying for his fourth term.

Aides to Bennett blame outside groups for "distorting" his position on multiple issues, such as the auto bailouts, the stimulus and health care reform. Bennett voted against all of those measures.

Bennett isn't the only Republican lawmaker in trouble as other moderate candidates across the country find themselves being abandoned by GOP voters in favor of those backed by Tea Party activists, such as with Senate races in Arizona, Kentucky and New Hampshire.

In Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist decided to run for Senate as an independent rather than face an almost certain primary defeat at the hands of Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio, Florida's former state House speaker.

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine emphasized the Tea Partiers' role in recent primary politics.

"This is just the latest battle in the corrosive Republican intra-party civil war that has resulted in the Tea Party devouring two Republicans in just as many weeks," Kaine said. "If there was any question before, there should now be no doubt that the Republican leadership has handed the reigns to the Tea Party."

Bennett's seven Republican rivals contend he no longer has the credentials to represent "ultraconservative" Utah.

Lee, 38, and Bridgewater, 49, have campaigned largely by saying they're better suited to pare down government spending than Bennett.

"I will fight every day as your U.S. senator for limited government, to end the cradle-to-grave entitlement mentality, for a balanced budget, to protect our flag, our borders and our national security and for bills that can be read before they receive a final vote in congress," Lee said in his convention speech.

The opposition to Bennett is specific, and can't be chalked up solely to a general anti-incumbency fervor. Neither of Utah's two Republican congressmen are at risk of losing their seats, and Republican Gov. Gary Herbert doesn't have any serious challengers.

But Bennett's vote to bail out Wall Street left many Republicans feeling he had become too much of a Washington insider. He's also come under fire for co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill mandating health insurance coverage and for aggressively pursuing earmarks.

In Arizona, Sen. John McCain is in a tough primary fight against former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, a conservative talk-radio host. In Kentucky, Rand Paul, the son of libertarian Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, is gaining momentum in his challenge against the GOP establishment's pick of Secretary of State Trey Grayson to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning.

In New Hampshire, former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte is battling three Republican challengers to fill the seat being vacated by Republican Judd Gregg.

 

[Cerise]

Hello? You do know this is "forum non gratis?"

 

[jimpeel]

Hello? You do know this is "forum non gratis?"

I've paid my dues.

 

[Cerise]

Yes, we all have.......

 

[Cerise]

 

[valkyrie]

I predict that the fascism of the Far Right Christian sect of the Republican Party and the insanity of the Tea Baggers will fracture the Republican Party and cause it to implode upon itself. I am not saying I would like to see this happen.

It is unfortunate that the Republican Party has lost touch with their more moderate members. There doesn't seem to be any place in the GOP for them anymore. I have friends who are Republicans who didn't vote in the last presidential election because they couldn't stomach Palin being so close to running this country. McCain was a good choice to bring the moderates to the polls (and even pulling former Dems to vote Republican) but saddling him with Palin was a poor choice and caused the moderates to back away. At least that is how it was explained to me by friends who were poised to vote McCain and didn't vote at all.

To be fair, I see this happening with the Democrats as well. Identity of the fiscally responsible, moderate Democrats has been lost as more Blue-Dog Democrats walk away from politics.

 

[Gonz]

McCain was a good choice to bring the moderates to the polls

That's nothing to be proud of...

Start here

Fascism/insanity...please, elaborate. The TEA "party" is nothing more than hard-working Americans looking to take back their nation from progressive/liberal ideologies.

 

[valkyrie]

That's nothing to be proud of...

Start here

Fascism/insanity...please, elaborate. The TEA "party" is nothing more than hard-working Americans looking to take back their nation from progressive/liberal ideologies.

I have no respect for the Tea Baggers. Their method of "taking back their nation" is by blocking other citizens from their right to petition their representatives. They have no focus other than being angry at everything. Where were they when Bush was taking away our civil liberties and increasing the government spending? Too much unfocused anger directed at the wrong people.

 

[MrBishop]

"What seems to animate this movement even more than xenophobia, the raw material of racism, is 'epistemophobia'—fear of knowledge—the raw material of superstition and barbarism." ~ Hal Crowther

 

[Gonz]

I have no respect for the Tea Baggers. Their method of "taking back their nation" is by blocking other citizens from their right to petition their representatives.

Say what????

 

[valkyrie]

You haven't seen any of the videos of the Tea Baggers taking over Town Hall Meetings and keeping other citizens from speaking to their representatives? You haven't read about any of that either? It's one of their famous MO's! They go to the Town Hall Meetings and badger the other citizens, talking over them and out of turn, so that the other attending citizens do not get a chance to speak their mind to their elected officials.

I have no respect for that.

 

[Gonz]

Maybe you need to check your sources. No, that is NOT the M.O. & it has not happened around here. I have heard of somewhat similar stuff, that turned out to be an infiltrator. In fact, that is a suggested tactic to discredit the TEA party.

 

[jimpeel]

It is unfortunate that the Republican Party has lost touch with their more moderate members. There doesn't seem to be any place in the GOP for them anymore. I have friends who are Republicans who didn't vote in the last presidential election because they couldn't stomach Palin being so close to running this country. McCain was a good choice to bring the moderates to the polls (and even pulling former Dems to vote Republican) but saddling him with Palin was a poor choice and caused the moderates to back away. At least that is how it was explained to me by friends who were poised to vote McCain and didn't vote at all.

Moderates are wishy washy weaklings who refuse to take a stand for anything. They simply sway with whatever winds are blowing at the time.

 

[jimpeel]

I have no respect for the Tea Baggers. Their method of "taking back their nation" is by blocking other citizens from their right to petition their representatives. They have no focus other than being angry at everything. Where were they when Bush was taking away our civil liberties and increasing the government spending? Too much unfocused anger directed at the wrong people.

That is such and interesting post! Again with the epithets and ad homs calling them "Tea Baggers" as though all members of the party run around squatting over other men's faces lowering their testicles into their mouths. You DO understand that you are using a stereotypical Gay slander as a weapon against your perceived enemies, don't you?

How are the Tea Party members "blocking" other Americans of their constitutional right to petition their government for redress of grievances by exercising their constitutional right to petition their government for redress of grievances? Your entire statement is ludicrous on its face.

So only those who are on your side of the debate, or your "moderates" have the constitutional right to petition their government for redress of grievances and anyone who is not of your stripe who does the same thing is "blocking" those people's rights?

The Tea Party members simply want the government to adhere to The Supreme Law of the Land. The current administration is making extra-constitutional laws by fiat and using the Constitution as toilet paper.

Let me guess, you are an adherent to the "The Constitution is a living document" bullshit, changeable at will, extra-constitutionally, by fiat, to whatever those who are power desire it to be.

 

[spike]

Moderates are wishy washy weaklings who refuse to take a stand for anything. They simply sway with whatever winds are blowing at the time.

Moderates are people that may agree with some things one party advocates and some things another party advocates. Sometimes that takes more strength than towing a party line unthinkingly.

I don't understand this RINO thing with Bob Bennett. Most of his policies are standard GOP stuff. It's like people are saying "unless you agree on every last issue you are a RINO. Don't bother thinking for yourself. Pick up the party line and tow it like your told."

 

[Gonz]

Both parties suck & both parties have things to like. Moderates have no posiiton until someone who speaks well tells them what their position is.

 

[spike]

Moderates have no posiiton until someone who speaks well tells them what their position is.

That applies to some moderates and some on the left or right.

"Fringe political voices will tell you that moderates “live in the middle” of the political landscape, and that they don’t feel strongly about any issue. Instead, we’re told that moderates hold their finger to the political wind to see which way it’s blowing – and then make up their minds.

As in many other cases, the folks on the fringes are wrong here as well. A political moderate is a person who holds values that are considered traditionally conservative as well as some that are considered traditionally liberal. Are you for a strong national defense and for good public education? Do you value the environment while you also value the need to provide decent jobs? Do you believe that it’s wrong to discriminate against people for housing or employment because they belong to some minority or religious group? What about voluntary prayer in schools?

Most people are more complex than fringe political wonks believe. Most people have a variety of views, and these often span the political spectrum. If you’re one of those people, one of the multitude that holds some conservative views and some liberal views, then you’re a political moderate – regardless of the political party to which you belong."

http://www.moderate-america.com/?p=6

 

[Gonz]

Thanks for clearing that up. This is not about party.

 

[spike]

What's not about party?