Former GOP Sen. Bennett: Reagan Held Views That Were ‘Absolutely Anathema’ To The Tea Party

[kpete]

Source: Think Progress

Former GOP Sen. Bennett: Reagan Held Views That Were ‘Absolutely Anathema’ To The Tea Party

Former GOP Sen. Bob Bennett (UT), who lost his seat to a far-right primary challenger after holding it for over a decade, slammed the tea party in an interview with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren Friday. Saying the tea party movement “cost the Republicans control of the Senate,” Bennett warned Republicans to “be careful” about kowtowing to the narrow demands of the hard right when nominating a presidential candidate. Bennett went on to note that the GOP has shifted far to the right from previous Republican presidential candidates like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. “Ronald Reagan would probably not recognize the description of Ronald Regan” that many conservatives have of him, Bennett said, noting that he held views that were “absolute anathema to many of the tea party people”:

BENNETT: And people talk about Ronald Reagan, but I remember Ronald Reagan very well. … But Ronald Reagan would probably not recognize the description of Ronald Regan that is coming out of a lot of the tea party blogs. Ronald Reagan, yes he was very conservative, yes he was a man of principles, and he wouldn’t budge on those principles. But he said something that would be absolutely anathema to many of the tea party people when he said it’s better to get 80 percent of what you want than zero. And Reagan would compromise, Reagan would make deals.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/28/bob-bennett-reagan-tea-party/

[rurallib]

1. Bob, Ronald Reagan has greatly changed his views since he died.

[calimary]

9. LOL!!!

[SpiralHawk]

2. Mental disconnect, Bullshit, and Hypocrisy...alas

are part and parcel of being one of the people SUCKERED into TeaBagsterism, or Republiconism...

[reformist2]

3. Bennett is correct. The GOP today is a funhouse-mirror reflection of what it was 30 years ago.

If Reagan were alive today, he might very well have to say," I didn't leave the GOP, the GOP left me."

[damntexdem]

8. If Reagan were alive today, he'd be spinning in his grave.

That is, Reagan before Alzheimers became too advanced.

[Avant Guardian]

4. Reagan worship in bizarro world

I thought the tea parties were all about fighting DEFICITS? Reagan invented massive deficits.

[rasputin1952]

5. Reagan wasn't adept at recognizing much...

but think of what Lincoln, TR, Eisenhower or even Nixon would think of the maniacal Teabaggers!

Bennett would do well to look to Reagan's "legacy" as well, his "principles were entrenched in early 19th Century thought, and most of his "vision" was the standard Hollywood illusion, (most of Reagan's was an illusion, brought to some form of reality that damn near destroyed the nation).

Regan blew it on quite a few things to include raining taxes, invading small countries that were no threat the the US and the only "socialist" thing he did, (which actually helped the country, enacting the Earned Income Credit. Most of Reagan's time in the WH was devoted to establishing some form of "royalty' precisely the one thing the presidency should not be. He spent Federal Funds like it was going out of style, to the point where USS Missouri was recommissioned, (and then de-commissioned) to the tune of nearly a billion dollars for both activities, (which was another sign of Reagan's love for a past he thought was "glorious", WWII, but never got beyond CA in promoting the war, much less fighting in it).

Lincoln, the first Republican presided over one of the worst periods of American history, TR was a Progressive, Eisenhower delegated authority to able individuals and Nixon did some pretty good things, even though his paranoia was his downfall.

Regan was a joke, one that turned into a nightmare, as some 12 years later, his "legacy" gave us the worst president we've ever had...bush...I cannot fathom anything that would make Reagan even a "decent" president.

Bennett is a fool.

[Kingofalldems]

6. Repubs now have the fake tough guy no compromise persona

Just like pigboy Limbaugh.

[Populist_Prole]

7. Baggers are painting themselves into a corner

My hard right tea party father, whose conservative meter on a scale of 1 to 10 would be about three hundred hates anybody but bagger pols. There's not a single former Republican political figure he doesn't dismiss as being "too left wing". He fumes when even the harder righties today make even the tiniest grudging conciliatory moves away from the tea party. With all the inflammatory rhetoric coming form the hard right, you would think they would try to moderate even a little...if only for machiavellian self preservation. But NO! They just double down on the crazy. Oh, he also as an unshakable belief he is in the majority.

Well, he and they are going to run out of places to go if they keep excluding everyone but the extreme fascists.

[kentauros]

10. Teabaggers can't spell "anathema" much less define it.

So what he had to say likely wasn't understood by their viewers...