Utah Sen. Bob Bennett, who lost his re-election bid in a
republican primary, told a Republican group on Tuesday that the party could
even take back the Senate soon but will lose both houses just as fast if the
GOP continues to rely on slogans and not solutions.
“As I look out at the political landscape now, I find
plenty of slogans on the Republican side, but not very many ideas,” Bennett
told The Ripon Society.
“Indeed, if you raise specific ideas and solutions, as
I’ve tried to do on health care with Sen. Ron Wyden (D- Oregon), you are
attacked with the same vigor as we’ve seen in American politics all the way
back to slavery and polygamy; you are attacked as being a wimp, insufficiently
pure, and unreliable.”
Bennett was criticized before the Utah Republican
Convention in May for teaming up with Wyden to push a health care measure he
considered a rival to the Democrats’ reform effort, and the senator came in
third to two challengers — Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater — who courted the tea
party movement.
Bennett said there was great momentum for Republicans to
take back the House and, with the death of Sen. Robert Byrd, of West Virginia,
there’s a chance a Republican could win that seat as well and join a landslide
to bring the Senate into GOP control.
But, Bennett added, the Republican Party may find itself
in the role played by Robert Redford in the film, “The Candidate,” who after
winning office turns to his aides and says,“What do we do now?”
“The concern I have is that ideology and a demand for
absolute party purity endangers our ability to govern once we get into office,”
Bennett said.
Utah Republican
Party Chairman Dave Hansen says Bennett is right on one part: if the GOP takes
over without any good solutions or doesn’t learn from past mistakes, it will
hand the government back to the Democrats quickly.
But Hansen noted that the party hasn’t put together one
major campaign document focusing on what ideas it will pursue if it controls
Congress, like it did in 1994 with the Contract for America.
Watch Sen. Bennett's comments here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1e3h78wzL0&feature=player_embedded
Watch Sen. Bennett's comments here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1e3h78wzL0&feature=player_embedded
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