Editor’s Note – Is the ‘tea party movement’ influencing politics across this land?  You betcha, it is! 

The real question is, WHEN will this register with the Washington establishment? 

Seems the Democrats get it, hence, the ramped up efforts to attack and discredit the movement. 

The Republican party?  Your guess is as good as mine…

Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett Ousted in Re-Election Bid

Fox News

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.

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.

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Tom Tillison

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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.

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