Bennett said in a phone interview that Lugar's defeat should not be portrayed solely as "Tea Party vs. Lugar and the Tea Party won."
"It would be giving them more credit than they deserve," Bennett said.
Specter believes that Hatch, elected in 1976 with Lugar, should be on notice. Hatch was forced into a June primary by former state senator Dan Liljenquist, who is backed by Tea Party supporters such as the group FreedomWorks.
Hatch has "moved deftly to the right and has made a very persuasive argument on seniority" in the Senate, Specter said. "He may escape but it's taken a heavy toll on his voting record."
Bennett disagrees.
"If they think this means, 'OK, let's double down on efforts to attack Sen. Hatch,' all that will do is drive up his favorables and make him even stronger in the primary," Bennett said. "Utahns are angry at outside groups trying to dictate how they should vote."
(See also related CNN and NationalJournal stories, Reihan Salam blog post, and Philip Klein op-ed.)
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Even though I am very conservative, I would have more respect for Hatch if he had remained moderate rather than taking a sharp right turn (and receiving much higher ratings from several conservative groups) after Bennett's defeat. Hatch thinks this is his job description: get reelected. He must have forgotten that part about defending the Constitution.
Given Hatch's enormous war chest, outside expenditures will be needed to expose the recent Hatch voting record. I would prefer that the Liljenquist campaign have control over the campaign message, but unfortunately, campaign finance "reform" (for which both Hatch and Bennett voted) makes that impossible. So we get Super Pacs.
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