Bennett and Matheson

They say Bennett wasn't conservative enough. But it's not a matter of votes; it's a matter of what Republicans have gotten done.

Utah Republicans would like to vote against Orrin Hatch, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and almost all the rest.

That Republicans hold conservative views, but then collaborate with Democrats, that's what drives them wild.

The vote on the bank bailout? They don' care if Bennett voted for half of it or one dollar of it or was just in the room. They aren't rejecting just Bob Bennett; they are rejecting the whole "establishment" GOP, that talks a good came but either cuts a deal with the Democrats or gets hornswoggled by them.

Bennett talked about his experience. But GOP core rejects that experience. He talks about reaching across the aisle. Well, every time they do that, they get their watches stolen, then get punched in the mouth. Democrats laugh all the way home.

And how to you reach out to radicals? Jim Matheson is getting schooled too. A cautious vote against ObamaCare has gotten a perfect personification of Dem special interests to run against him.

Democrats don't want him. And I don't mean that in a negative sense. They want to get rid of him.

For there is no middle ground. The differences are too great, the stakes too high.

For Democrats want to destroy conservatism. That's why the slurs, the union thugs, the vicious rhetoric from the White House on down.

Maybe Bob Bennett is too nice for this game. And, though he's in fine fettle, at 76 he just doesn't have it.

But, by the way, the tea party crowd doesn't want to be a third party. They want to be the conservative party. They want to take over the Republican Party, or else gut it and form a new one. A Conservative Party, a Patriot Party, what.

They're just done with the Republican Party.

Can it cope with that and the end of Reganism too?