Thread: UT: Forum: Bennett stands alone on immigration

Forum: Bennett stands alone on immigration
Challengers unite on positions differing from incumbent.

By Jeremiah Stettler

The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 01/16/2010 09:04:42 PM MST

Sen. Bob Bennett stood alone.

He was the only candidate for U.S. Senate to suggest Saturday that immigrants wanting to work should have an easier time traveling in and out of the United States.

He was the only candidate to stand behind an existing constitutional amendment giving the electorate, and not the state Legislature, the power to select its senator.

And he was the only candidate, among a panel of five competing Republicans, to urge voters to pick the incumbent -- himself -- to return to Washington.

During a sometimes spirited Utah Eagle Forum convention Saturday at Salt Lake Community College in Sandy, Bennett squared off against four candidates who aim to replace him as U.S. senator.

Bennett spoke much of experience in asking a crowd of more than 200 conservatives to let him keep the seat he has held since 1992. Using a medical analogy, he asked, "Do you go with the doctor who has done a number of procedures? Or do you want to try somebody new?"

His four challengers -- Cherilyn Eagar, James Williams, Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee -- want the electorate to switch doctors.

Eager called for an uncompromising return to conservative values as the best medicine for the nation. She condemned decisions to remove prayer from schools and legalize abortion. She urged an audit of the Federal Reserve. She pledged to counteract feminism's influence on national policy.

"We are not going to be going along to get along," said Eager, who labeled herself an admirer of Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly. "We are not going to be compromising any step of the way."

Williams, a less recognizable face on the panel, identified himself as a voice of small business. He said he would champion a free-market approach to health care, the revocation of driving privileges and other benefits for undocumented immigrants and limited government.

Bridgewater pledged to get government "out of the way" of business. Its heavy-handed interference is impeding the private sector's success, he said. Then Bridgewater told the crowd he wouldn't chase federal perks for Utah.

"If it is important to you to get pork barrel projects or government spending back into the state, it is probably unlikely you will vote for Tim Bridgewater," he said in his gravely tone. "I don't think that is the way government should be run."

Lee committed himself to a strict adherence of the Constitution, saying he would oppose any measure that strays from that text. He criticized the stimulus as the wrong approach to economic recovery and promised to push a balanced-budget amendment.

"It is all too easy for Congress to expand government," Lee said, "when they don't have to pay for it until later."

And then there was Bennett.

He was the only candidate of the five to openly disagree on any issue during Saturday's forum.

When his challengers railed against illegal immigration, he spoke about building a high fence, but with a wide gate to permit workers to flow in and out of the country.

When they argued that state legislatures should have a greater role in selecting or recalling senators, Bennett leaned on remarks written by Lee's father to defend the 17th Amendment which passed in 1912, which some considered an attack on states' rights.

"I'm not egotistical enough to say that the Republic will fail if I quit," Bennett told the crowd after an hour of questions and answers. But he added that he's not ready to retire.

Businessman Sam Granato is the only declared Democratic candidate for the Senate seat held by Bennett.

http://www.sltrib.com/Utah/ci_14208964

"I'm not egotistical enough to say that the Republic will fail if I quit," Bennett told the crowd after an hour of questions and answers.


Maybe not.....but he's sure as hell arrogant enough to think so.




But he added that he's not ready to retire.


Wonder how he feels about a forced retirement at the hands of Utah voters?

Bennett will be gone after this election. Bennett along with being pro illegal immigration has a record of being for the left. Bennett hides behind the Republican Party and religion in the state of Utah. Bennett along with Hatch voted for Cass Seinstien, Obamas czar and one of the worst czar's there are. At a 9-12 rally I went to were signs about the vote and the two traitors in Utah. Bennett and Hatch.
All I can say is goodbye Bennett and may you rest in hell. Those that hide behind walls and stab America in the back while doing that hiding are in my view, one of the worst humans there are.