Bob Bennett: Sore Loser
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | August 6th at 01:39 PM |
We’ve commented here a number of times recently that Bob Bennett has gone out of this way to trash the tea party movement since they defeated him for re-election. I guess that is understandable. Well, today we’re getting word that Bob Bennet’s son is now working for the Democrats in Utah. How fitting. Jim Bennett, the son of Sen. Bob Bennett who ran his father’s | Read More »
Republican Statists Reveal Themselves
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | July 9th at 04:30 PM |
Hogan mentioned Bob Bennett’s comments earlier. Bennett thought it beneath him and outside conservatism to think the constitution may limit him, a senator, from legislating. Well, over in South Carolina, Daniel Foster points out another example, defeated Republican Bob Inglis. Inglis, defeated in a Republican primary by tea party activists, has shared what he really thinks of conservatives — they are racist, bigotted, and easily | Read More »
An Inconvenient Truth: Bob Bennett and Tim Bridgewater Together
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | June 16th at 11:35 AM |
Months ago I told you Bob Bennett and Tim Bridgewater were cutting a deal. I got so much blowback from so many people I actually had to remove the post from the front page of RedState. I stood by the story, but the brouhaha that resulted necessitated the post going into draft mode so we could get on with the day. Well, I was and | Read More »
The Great Disentangling Has Begun: What Bob Bennett’s Defeat Means and Does Not
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | May 10th at 05:00 AM |
I’d like to think I might have some idea of what Bob Bennett’s defeat means and does not mean. After all, as with Marco Rubio, Doug Hoffman, and Marlin Stutzman, before others noticed, I was beating the drum — all the way back to September of last year on Bob Bennett. Pay attention now you media types who look for great meaning in all things | Read More »
It’s About Bob Bennett’s Responsibility, Not His Conservatism
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | May 8th at 09:47 AM |
Just watched the CNN spot a friend mentioned earlier… the interview with the Utah tea party founder is awesome… TEA PARTY FOUNDER: “It’s not a question of how conservative he is, it’s a question of being responsible. And it wasn’t responsible of him to vote for the bailout for failing companies.” REPORTER: “Should his career end over that one vote?” TEA PARTY FOUNDER “His career | Read More »
The Arrogance and Ignorance of Bob Bennett
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | May 5th at 10:14 AM |
Bob Bennett has a new ad out in Utah that is the epitome of just how out of touch the man has gotten, replacing the common touch with arrogance. The advertisement has several recipients of Bob Bennett earmarks saying Bob Bennett is the indispensable man and without Bob Bennett the water would go away, the animals and people would die, and Utah would return to | Read More »
Beware of Bridgewater Part II
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | May 4th at 07:09 PM |
The Utah GOP state convention is this Saturday, and 3,500 state delegates will decide whether to nominate the incumbent Senator Bob Bennett or one of seven challengers to represent the party in the general election. Several polls conducted among delegates have pointed to Mike Lee enjoying a clear lead, with Bennett and Tim Bridgewater competing for second place. From all indications, Bennett doesn’t stand a | Read More »
Bob Bennett’s Final Days of Power
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | April 27th at 09:59 AM |
Real Clear Politics has seen the polling. It’s not just any polling, but a Mason-Dixon poll. Those are typically very reliable. And the result? Bob Bennett is toast. If no candidate receives 60% of the delegate vote at the May 8 convention, the top two finishers advance to the June 22 primary. However, Bennett currently finds himself in third place. Mike Lee leads with 37%, | Read More »
Bob Bennett Cries Foul
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | April 23rd at 12:14 PM |
Bob Bennett is out. He’s toast. Dead man walking. Pick your description. Bob Bennett will not be the next Senator for the State of Utah despite Mitt Romney himself going to the Utah State Convention and begging them to re-elect Bennett. Bob Bennett’s political career is finished. How do we know? As I type this, in Utah, Bob Bennett is behind the podium at a | Read More »
Utah Delegates: Beware of Bridgewater
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | April 9th at 05:00 AM |
In the past few days I’ve highlighted my concerns with Tim Bridgewater, one of the candidates for U.S. Senate in Utah. This started after Senator Bob Bennett highlighted Bridgewater’s support of No Child Left Behind. I was disappointed by his support for NCLB but imagine my piqued interest when a reader told me Bridgewater also supported Medicare Part D — the bloated prescription drug benefit | Read More »
In Utah, the Race for Second Place Begins
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | April 5th at 08:43 PM |
One of the few votes Bob Bennett took in the Senate that was a legitimately conservative vote was against No Chlid Left Behind (“NCLB”). Bennett is now raising the issue of NCLB to highlight Tim Bridgewater’s past support and Bennett’s “nay” vote. Bennett is right that Bridgewater was wrong to support NCLB but Bennett’s record isn’t clean either. Senators DeMint and Cornyn introduced the APLUS | Read More »
Utah’s Governor Has Taken to Blasting Bob Bennett
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 26th at 02:00 PM |
What I know that you now know is that Bob Bennett really is toast. The delegate math does not work out for Bob according to people I’m close to connected to all the other camps and the Utah GOP. There is no path to victory for Bennett it would seem. Deals could be cut and that could be changed, but that’s the way things stand | Read More »
A Great Day In Utah
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 24th at 10:52 AM |
I’m hearing from more and more people that last night was a truly great night for conservatives in Utah as Bob Bennett’s supporters were largely denied delegate spots to the State Convention. Across Utah, in most major areas, Bob Bennett’s supporters were shut out. In Provo, Bennett was able to come in first, but barely edged out Mike Lee. I’m getting reports from across the | Read More »
Dick Cheney vs. the Tea Party Activists
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 23rd at 05:00 AM |
It did not do Kay Bailey Hutchison any good in Texas, but she made the most of Dick Cheney endorsing her. In Utah, Bob Bennett has lined up Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Dick Cheney — calling in every imaginable favor to show he is the preferred candidate of the Republican Party. In other years that might help Bob Bennett, but as Utah Republicans go | Read More »
Bob Bennett Must Go: In Summation
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 22nd at 01:00 PM |
For the past several weeks I think I have laid out why Bob Bennett must go. For years, he has drifted left in Washington while portraying himself as a solid conservative back in Utah. Last night, after Jim DeMint dropped legislation to repeal Obamacare, Bob Bennett signed on. But Bennett will not renounce his support of Wyden-Bennett, which funds abortion, has an individual mandate, and | Read More »
Is Orrin Hatch a Threat to Utah Jobs?
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 22nd at 10:05 AM |
Just the other day Republican Senator Bob Bennett released a letter attacking Mike Lee for Lee’s opposition to earmarks in relation to ATK Thiokol, a major employer in Utah. According to Bennett, the only way to protect ATK Thiokol’s NASA contracts is through earmarks, and trying to scare delegates into believing that because Mike Lee supports earmark reform (and a one-year moratorium), he presents a | Read More »
Bob Bennett’s Campaign Caught on Tape
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 18th at 01:56 PM |
As you know, Utah is having its caucuses next week. People will be picked as delegates to go to the State Convention. At the convention, if Bennett cannot get 60% of the delegates to support him, he will either be defeated at the convention or be forced into a runoff. Bennett’s campaign is encouraging its supporters to show up at the caucuses and lie as | Read More »
Bob Bennett Must Go: Urging Supporters to Lie
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 17th at 11:13 PM |
This is interesting. The Club For Growth sent out a press release that gives some on the ground scoop out of Utah not too flattering to Bob Bennett. As you know, Utah is having its caucuses next week. People will be picked as delegates to go to the State Convention. At the convention, if Bennett cannot get 60% of the delegates to support him, he | Read More »
Bob Bennett Must Go: TARP
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 16th at 01:50 PM |
On March 23rd, if you live in Utah, you can show up at your local precinct caucus meeting and become a delegate into the convention process. You will have the power to boot Bob Bennett from his seat. Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the penultimate reason. Bob Bennett voted for TARP. But he did not just vote for TARP, he made money off of the | Read More »
Et tu, Mitt?
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 15th at 12:01 PM |
Bob Bennett, as you know, is the TARP-backing, Bridge-to-Nowhere-supporting, health-care-takeover-proposing RINO running for his life to win re-nomination in Utah for a fourth term. Bob Bennett’s health care proposal – it’s called the Wyden-Bennett bill, remember – includes an individual mandate, forces taxpayers to subsidize abortions, supports “domestic partner” benefits, and would cost more than $1 trillion. He is an unrepentant earmarker, whom Senator Jim | Read More »