Comments about ‘Former Utah Sen. Bob Bennett keeps busy, talks about why he didn't mount write-in campaign’

"...Mike Lee I think has the potential to be a first-class senator."

Oh? And what standard will he be held up to? Bob Bennett?

I give them both a 2nd or 3rd class ranking.

Mike Lee will do well as a senator. What we need is a continuing stream of federal legislators who serve no more than two terms (senators), and maybe a miximum of 5 terms (10 years) in the House of Representatives. This old idea of having people in Washington 30, 40 and 50 years is just totally wrong. And then they do as Senator Bennett and hook up with their connections as consultants to lobby firms. This is not right. Go back to the private sector and get a job if you want to work beyone age 65 or 70. Come on man. Becoming entranched in Washington, D.C. only encourages ongoing compromising with people who have no interest in the American people, but in only feathering their own nests and growing government. We are broke and spend totally too much for government as all levels.

It was Senator Bennett's time to leave, and probably Senator Hatch will be next. As long as we are sending people back to Washington who truly have the country's interests as they act, and not a personal agenda, this is what we need. The era of good old boy or girl is over.

Bob Bennet shows again why he was so widely admired in both Utah and in the nation. Utah lost a statesman when he was defeated in the Republican convention and gained a politician in Mike Lee.

Bob Bennet exactly personified many key problems in Washington DC:

1. Political royalty
2. A sense of entitlement of that royalty
3. A spoiled grapes attitude when he lost
4. Takes pride in achieving a deal regardless of the sell-out that the deal required.

Good riddance, Bob. Don't let the door hit you in the fanny.

I'm with you, Rich Daddy. Bennett was a first class senator who did a first class job. That said, I think it probably was time for him to move on. As for the poster who says he should go back to the "private sector," what the heck do you think he's doing? When you change jobs don't you draw on past experience to help you in your new gig? Of course you do. Bennett performed a tremendous public service and it saddens me that people don't give him the respect he deserves.

Really? what a thought provoking article.
Please re-release this as a blog.
Absolutely nothing in this is new/original. The USA today article was printed this morning and the interview on CBS was released last week. Please Dnews, pay for a real journalist to write an article or refer to employee news reports as blogs or weekly paper assignments. with hyperlinks already in place you look silly not categorizing this as a blog.

Did I like Bennett as a Senator? No -- I had serious problems with him. Would I have voted for him if he was running against Mike Lee? Darned right I would have. Why? Because Bennett, for all his short-comings, was infinitely better than what we're stuck with now. We lost a statesman and gained an incompetent know-it-all who, in reality, knows nothing.

Bennett doesn't have to say the garbage the crazy right wing and hopefully he will now be more candid. What i would like him to say is that Mike Lee is too far to the right and out of touch with reality to effectively govern. The threat to our freedom will come from the right, not the left.

Bennett's post-firing behavior confirms all the bad opinions people had about him.

He is still in Washington. Still has an "entitlement" attitude that he is some sort of elite person with a monopoly on good ideas. And he still likes hanging around with lobbyists more than Utahns.

Please stay in DC, where you feel so much at home.

Also, see if they have a job opening at your lobbying firm for your buddy Orrin. He will be needing a job soon, for the first time in 30+ years.

You all shot yourselves in the foot out there in Utah...

DeMint isn't going to care about you inviting him out to Utah to the convention to raise his seniority by defeating Bennett... When it comes time to close Hill and move those jobs to AF bases in South Carolina...

Bennett would have won... As an independent...

So will Hatch, if it ever comes to that...

I agree with many of the posts. Utah is better off without Bobby. My idea of a statesman, is not someone who agrees with the democrats to be congenial and cross the aisle. How many times did the democrats cross the aisle to support his legislation? He is now showing his true colors and staying in DC, which is what most long term politicians do. Bobby is intoxicated by the power he held, and that he will now wield as a former Senator in lobbying his former colleagues.