GOP Sen. Bennett: "Plenty Of Slogans On The Republican Side, But Not Very Many Ideas."

Utah Senator Bob Bennett is probably the most notable victim of this year's primary purges. At the state convention last month, Utah Republicans wouldn't even let the three-term incumbent on the primary ballot, thereby denying him a chance to defend his record to voters.

Today, Bennett spoke candidly about the state of the modern Republican Party that expelled him. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Bennett told an audience at the conservative Ripon Society that "As I look out at the political landscape now, I find plenty of slogans on the Republican side, but not very many ideas."

"Indeed, if you raise specific ideas and solutions, as I've tried to do on health care with [Oregon Democratic Sen.] Ron Wyden, 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 continued. "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 is absolutely right. Republicans have persistently offered PR packets in lieu of policy alternatives, and their only really striking ideas this year have been crazy ones: defending BP, privatizing social security, raising the retirement age to 70, and foolish economic policies that would stoke the boom and bust cycles that brought us the recession.