In 24 hours the Republican Party will execute one of its Senators in its circular firing squad

[grantcart]

It is almost a 95% certain that Senator Bob Bennett, one of the most conservative members of the US Senate (and a distant cousin) will be defeated in the Republican convention and not make it to the primary to defend his seat.

This is the third most obvious example of how the Republican Party is going through a psychotic event. Following the serious primary challenge of their standard bearer in the Arizona Republican Primary and the pushing out of Crist in Florida the bizarre public firing of Senator Bennett is all the evidence that is necessary to convince moderate voters that when it comes to the Republican Party the inmates have taken over the psychiatric hospital.

Bennett had the temerity to criticize Glenn Beck and Beck has been ranting how Bennett has to go. The Republicans of Utah are about to throw away a senior Senator with credibility for a candidate that is pimped by Glenn Beck.

This story from SLC is a couple of weeks old but is thought to project the reality behind tomorrow's end of Bennett's Senate career:

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14964318

Poll stunner: Bennett on brink of defeat

Senator Bennett one of the Senate's most conservative
Senators is about to be 'tea partied' out of the Senate.




Unless Sen. Bob Bennett's political fortunes change dramatically in the next two weeks, he could become Utah's first incumbent U.S. senator to lose his party's nomination in seven decades.

A new Salt Lake Tribune poll of Republican delegates shows Bennett running in third, behind GOP challengers Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater.

Lee logged 37 percent support in the survey, while Bridgewater came in at 20 percent, and Bennett lagged at 16 percent.

The survey of 400 Republican delegates, with a 4.4 percent margin of error, was conducted April 22-25 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington, D.C. It comes less than two weeks before the May 8 state GOP convention.

"Bennett has almost no
shot of getting more votes at the convention than Bridgewater and Lee," Brad Coker, managing director at Mason-Dixon, said Monday.

And in a Republican race where only two can survive, that would spell the end for the three-term senator.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Anyone who think Beck's politcal advice has any validity, deserve what they get....

hopefully that will be "NOTHING"

[NotThisTime]

24. Coming from Conservative Central the Tea Bagger will be elected & we'll be stuck with him

[SalmonChantedEvening]

2. Another schizm wthin the party.

Bennett's friends and allies will not take this without repucussion.

Gonna keep an eye on this Drama. :)

[Cha]

3. I was watching last year's "Glee" on DVD &

the parents of the cheerleader said that they had to go watch glen beck 'cause he was almost on..and a little while later the ugliness of these parents came out in the way they treated their daughter..one couldn't help but make the connection of an ignorant becker.

How awful to have to be toeing the line that the lying teabagger beck brings to the gNOp.

[OmahaBlueDog]

4. I always love your analysis, but I don't think circular firing squad is a correct description here

In Florida, I'll agree completely with that description. In Utah, the GOP leadership sees an opportunity to get a leader who is both more strident (Think Bachmann or King) and a helluva lot younger. They know there is no chance Bennett will run as an independent (a la Crist) and zero chance they could field a candidate perceived as so overly conservative as to give a Democrat a shot at victory.

[grantcart]

12. You are correct when it comes to the Republicans and the Tea Party

normal English terms lose their meaning and we really need to invent new terms. lol

[NNN0LHI]

5. This good old boy needs some sun. Seriously

Maybe the time off will do him some good.

Don

[theoldman]

6. I think it's called the dogs of war.

When dogs get into a fighting frenzy they start to bite each other. I think that Newt once said that Republicans eat their own.

[WillyT]

7. K & R !!! - Hey GC... A Question For You...

I hate to use a Nixonian term, but...

Watching the antics of Republicans pandering to the extreme right, and NOT seeing much in the way of polls or other evidence that the Dem/Liberal side is effectively countering...

Do you think there's a new Silent Majority sitting out there... this time ready to squash the right?

Or... are we doomed to ride this ever accelerating political pendulum?

:shrug:

[grantcart]

15. I would call it the 'Reasonable Majority'

If you scroll down and see Obama's weekly approval for the last 16 months it is almost always between 48-52.

I think that 55-60% of the population have decided that they not only like him but that they trust him. Sometimes they may not agree with a particular decision but they think that he is working from the best intentions and is trying to work out reasonable compromises.

What will be really revealing is when you compare a Republican candidate against Obama.

I think that by November there will be a number of Republican ventures like 'drill baby drill' and the AZ immigration law that will just tire out the electorate and people will get tired of the incestant bitching by the tea party idiots.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/Barack-Obama-Presidential-Job-Approval.aspx

[Gman]

8. The trendy thing now is to run as an independent

Which Bennett will likely do.

[JustinL]

26. he missed the March filing deadline

http://elections.utah.gov/howtobecomeacandidateforfederaloffice.html

[political_Dem]

9. The second shot fired in the Republican civil war. The first was Crist.

:popcorn:

[Initech]

10. You've just been tea parti'd!!!!

[hfojvt]

11. a distant cousin?

He's a distant cousin of me as well (and doubtless of thousands of others). I am guessing that makes us distant cousins, members of the Grant family.

[grantcart]

13. did your family live in SLC at one time?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells-Bennett-Grant_Family


Jedediah M. Grant was born February 21, 1816 to Joshua Grant and Athalia Howard Grant in Windsor, New York. He joined the LDS Church early in his life. By the age of 18 he had participated in Zion's Camp, marching from Kirtland, Ohio to Missouri under the direction of Joseph Smith, Jr.. Though the physical objectives of the march weren't met, many members later became leaders of the LDS Church. Jedediah's close relationship with these men from such an early age would last the rest of his life.



We are direct descendents of Joshua Grant.


Ironically I went to school (grade to high school)with a direct cousin of Mitt Romney. He was fascinated by my descending directly from the first mayor and the second longest serving President of the LDS. He couldn't believe that we would walk away from that connection just because we thought Joseph Smith was a fraud.

[lpbk2713]

14. The T-baggers are doing a great job ...

of fragmenting what's left of the rethuglican party.

Keep up the good work assholes.

[JCMach1]

17. Keep up the good work baggers... teh stupid

it burns...

This one deserves a HUGE :wtf:

[smalll]

16. Well, nice to know they have circular firing squads too!

:)

[pampango]

19. Yeah. Don't we have a patent of the circular firing squad concept? I think they owe us a royalty

payment! :)

[Demeter]

18. Couldn't Happen at a Better Time

or to a better target.

[grantcart]

20. lol

[grantcart]

21. Bennett has just been thrown out of the party.

[Contrary1]

22. The execution has taken place:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37038395/ns/politics/

[HughMoran]

23. Whoa, they actually did it

[grantcart]

25. That is why all of the predictions about November are laughable

Our opponents are tossing away their best chance with a witch hunt.

[JustinL]

27. do you think a Democrat has a change of winning the general election? n/t

[grantcart]

32. Not in Utah but NY 23rd has been held by Republicans for 150 years and is now

represented by a Democrat

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/nyregion/04district.html?_r=1

Senator Grassley in Iowa has now fallen to under 50%

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/ia_2010_gov_sen_kcci_535.php

[backscatter712]

28. A smiley is worth a thousand words...

:popcorn:

[backscatter712]

29. D'oh! Duplicate post!

[Umbral]

30. The really sad fact, though...

Sam Granato is likable, sane and a competent candidate, but he wont stand a chance come November. I wouldn't be surprised if he polls better than any recent Democratic candidate, better than any since the time of Lindon Johnson, but, he'll lose. This state has gone completely fucking nuts.

[cliffordu]

31. My schadenfreude weeps with laughter.

Hysterical laughter....

[donquijoterocket]

33. Glennda and the Princess

I've already seen paeans at another site laying this at the feet of the all-powerful Palin. Not that I'm sorry to see Bennett go,but I'd suggest the baggers and their erstwhile allies are shooting themselves in the foot and various other extremities.It's a result of them only talking ,or listening to one another. They're convinced the whole rest of the country is in the mood for some radical reactionaries as legislators and leaders. I think they've misjudged and are badly fooling themselves,but they're good at that and seem to be happy.

[JVS]

34. What did he say?

[muntrv]

35. May the teabaggers choke on their own teabags!

:evilgrin:

[AlbertCat]

36. The DC media will love this...

.... because it fits their "incumbents are in trouble" scenario...

But as Rachel Maddow pointed out, the OH, IN and NC primaries did not go for the "outsiders"...

So things will be more complicated than we imagine, of course.

Still, there doesn't seem to be a strong Progressive "purist cleansing" movement on the Left like there does on the Right with the wretched Teabaggers.