TEA Party to Utah's Bob Bennett: RINOs OUT

The message is being emphasized early:

Senator Robert (Bob) Bennett, Utah Republican was denied re-nomination Saturday after serving three terms in office, and the Utah Tea Party has been credited with pushing him out. Bennett voted for the bank bailout and that vote (among others) had Utah’s Tea Party and many Utah Republicans up in arms.

Bennett, 76, failed to make it to Utah’s GOP primary or win his party’s nomination. He is the first congressional incumbent to be tossed out in 2010.

The DNC, therefore, thinks the TEA Party now runs the GOP zoo because Mr Bennett was so extremely conservative:

Today the Tea Party strengthened its hold on the Republican Party by ousting Utah's Senator Bob Bennett from the primary. That the Tea Party would consider Bob Bennett – one of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate – too liberal, just goes to show how extreme the Tea Party is. 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. 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 himself said:

The political atmosphere obviously has been toxic and it's very clear that some of the votes that I have cast have added to the toxic environment."

"Looking back on them, with one or two very minor exceptions, I wouldn't have cast any of them any differently even if I had known at the time they were going to cost me my career."

"Don't take a chance on a newcomer," Bennett pleaded before the second round of voting. "There's too much at stake."

Many are trying to push the "incumbent" theory: voters simply want all incumbents out.

I say: it's just a wee bit more complicated than that.

Good riddance to Mr Bennett, your RINO days are now concluded. Go away.

BZ