Utah Getting Redder?

Wisdom from PowerLine's Paul Mirengoff in response to WaPo's Kathleen Parker:

Parker's answer is: "if good-faith conservative legislators such as Bennett fail to pass muster, who will be brave enough to legislate?" But legislation is not an end, it is a means to an end. For conservatives, the end is a society characterized by free markets, limited government, and individual liberty. Thus, conservatives quite rightly will tend to vote for those candidates who most consistently stand for these principles.

Parker is fretting because it's looking increasingly likely that three-term Utah Senator Robert Bennett is about to lose the Republican primary to outsider Mike Lee. A lot of that has to do with Bennett's vote for TARP. He also supported a healthcare reform proposal with an insurance mandate. Parker laments the loss of "good-faith conservative legislators" like Bennett.

But there is no get-out-of-the-primary card for "good-faith" politicians. He did some things that conservatives in Utah don't like and now he's getting the hook. Good for them. That's why Senators aren't elected for life terms.

Parker also re-writes the TARP debate, whining ""Would all those running against TARP now have voted against it had they been in Washington with the full weight of economic collapse on their shoulders?" All of them? No. (But I'd hope they'd learn from their mistake.) Some of them? You bet. Many people opposed the TARP, including me.

In the end, Bennett's high ACU score doesn't mean anything if his constituents want to put an even more consistently conservative senator in his seat. In red state Utah, they can do that. There's no Tea Party spoiling this race. That's got to be frustrating Parker without end.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 09:20 AM

| Access Comments