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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Jonah Goldberg
Senator Robert Bennett, an honorable and sincere politician, was brought down by the rank and file of the
He had good reason to be shocked. Bennett is reliably conservative with considerable seniority. He's also one of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's right-hand men. In every way, he represented the establishment within the
His gravest sins, according to critics, were his longtime support for a health insurance mandate and his vote for the TARP bailout of the banks.
Inside the Beltway, the shock is even more profound. Most of the news stories describe Bennett as being "ousted" or "kicked out" of the
On "Meet the Press,"
The conventional Beltway interpretation is that Bennett fell victim to the growing right-wing "extremism" of the
This is not an altogether crazy interpretation, but it is an insufficient one. It assumes that those who voted him out at the state
Another way of looking at this is that the
The delegates understood, better than most, that the other Republican contenders will almost surely win in November. (Utah hasn't elected a Democratic senator since 1958.) So, the
Over the last year, there's been a lot of Beltway talk about how the "tea parties" are really "Astroturf" activists in the employ of the
The whole country is in anti-Washington, anti-incumbent mood. That's better news for the party out of power, the Republicans, but it's not necessarily good news for incumbents.
Heck, what better way to prove your sincerity than to opt for some new blood, less tainted by seniority and connections?
We're seeing the same trend in Pennsylvania, where Arlen Specter is running as a Democrat because the
Independents, too, seem fed up, which is why they delivered stunning victories to Republicans in off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts. And it's why New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent
The one place where the winds of change seem to be blowing the weakest -- for now -- is the state where they are needed most. In nearly bankrupt California, Barbara Boxer is opposed in the primary by the quixotic blogger Mickey Kaus, who has been frozen out by the
It's certainly plausible that the
Available at Amazon.com:
After the Hangover: The Conservatives' Road to Recovery
The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics
Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
AMERICAN POLITICS
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