Mormon Politicians From Utah Feel Tea Party Heat

[no_hypocrisy]

-snip-

In addition to Mr. Hatch, two other Republicans closely associated with Utah are likely to be in the national spotlight next year — Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former governor of Utah, both possible presidential candidates.

And the three, Mormons all, are facing varying degrees of revolt where they might least like it or expect it — in their own backyard among mostly Mormon Tea Party members who are pushing for still more conservative fortitude.

“We oppose all three,” said David Kirkham, a businessman who helped found one of Utah’s first Tea Party groups.

-more-

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/us/politics/15utah.html?_r=1&hp

[Countdown_3_2_1]

1. This is good, the party is fracturing.

Break it in two and its not a threat.

[pampango]

2. HCR and cap-and-trade mentioned in the article as two teabagger "no-no"s.

"Mr. Romney, who has family roots in Utah, blazed further into local life with his leadership of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. But he has since been besmirched, Mr. Kirkham and others said, by his involvement with a Massachusetts health care overhaul that is anathema to many Tea Party members who see it as a model for the Obama plan passed last year.

Mr. Huntsman took a moderate stance on many social issues as governor and also supported carbon emissions cap-and-trade legislation to reduce heat-trapping gases, another Tea Party no-no.

What amplifies the Tea Party’s role is that Utah, more than perhaps any other state, is dominated by the Republican Party. No Democrat has won statewide office here since a two-term attorney general in the 1990s. That means Tea Party activists do not need to think much, or talk much, about the Democrats, who can largely be dismissed as irrelevant; they can thus concentrate fully on remaking the Republican Party from within, by shaping it and handpicking candidates.

“What happened in the election in 2010 shows that they have inordinate power in the Republican Party to shift the party further to the right,” Mr. Alexander said, referring to the Tea Party groups. ... Some Republicans believe Tea Party invincibility has been overstated. A Tea Party-backed candidate, Morgan Philpot, failed last year to unseat Utah’s only Democratic congressman, Jim Matheson."

[drm604]

3. Looks like the Republican Party

has created it's own Frankenstein monster, and it's turning on them.