Just like the shockwaves of an earthquake can be felt for miles away from the epicenter, the shockwaves of what just transpired in Utah will be felt thousands of miles way in Washington DC. 

If you missed it, the sitting 3 term Republican Senator Bob Bennett just lost his primary challenge and will be going home after the November election.  In Utah, they hold a convention to decide who will be on the ballot.  If a candidate gets 60% or more the delegates, then he or she moves on unopposed.  However, if nobody gets the 60%, then the top two will square off in a June primary.  Bob Bennett came in 3rd.

So what happened that a sitting Senator lost a primary challenge within his own party?  Three things caused his downfall - Bob Bennett himself, the Tea Party movement, and conservative bloggers. 

Bob Bennett - He underestimated his competition.  He didn't start actually running a campaign until it was too late.  By that point, the damage was done.  It seems he even called in some favors from his friends in Washington as they glowed about him and decried losing such and important legislator in the Senate.  He was a spender, plain and simple.  He said he was a conservative, but his votes on fiscal and social issues is more than questionable, which we will address further down.

Tea Party movement - I think now more than at any time since the inception of the Tea Parties you can aptly use the term "movement" to describe what is going.  The Tea Parties are starting to make a dent in the political world.  The Tea Parties in Utah revolted against the establishment candidate and decided they will decide who they want on the ballot, not Washington insiders.  Tea Parties have put tremendous pressure on legislators on both sides of the aisle and they can claim Utah as their second battle victory.  Charlie Crist dropping out and going independent in Florida because the Tea Party supported Marco Rubio was destroying Crist in the polls was the first battle won.  Two battles won, but the war rages on. 

Conservative bloggers - There were many conservative blogs that were hot on Bennett's tail, but nobody, in my humble opinion, did more to bring down Bennett than Erick Erickson at Redstate.com.  Way back in February, he started posting how Bennett must go.  I won't rehash what he wrote about, but here are the links to his articles and you can read for yourself why conservative bloggers like Erickson would go after Bennett:  Bennett Must Go Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5 , Part 6 , Part 7.  Ok, stop.  If you just skipped over those links and are reading this, go back and read those articles.  By the time you get to the end of Part 7, you will see why conservatives are/were upset with Bennett.  Ok, that was the fiscal side, here's the social side/Constitutional side from Erickson.

The mainstream media seem to be hung up on the Tea Party anti-incumbent tilt was responsible and that Bennett's defeat has shaken up Washington.  I think it should be a wake up call - spend our money wisely, and rein in government or we'll send you home.  Washington acts surprised at what is going on - both sides of the aisle.  Washington should not be surprised by what is going on; the Tea Parties have been trying to warn them that there was going to be hell to be paid for their votes - past and present.  The long term memory amnesia of the voters seems to have cleared up for the moment and that scares a politician more than anything. 

Also, it seems to me that the Tea Parties are tired of those that "extend a hand across the aisle".  Compromisers like Bennett, McCain, Hatch and Grassley have all taken serious heat over being squishy RINOs because they continuously throw away their conservative principles in the name of "progress".  I think the voters want conservatives to stop the spending, to stop the government's growth, and to stop the erosion of our Constitution and country.  They want somebody that will draw a line in the sand and refuse to budge.  Conservatives are ALWAYS compromising, because the left has already drawn their line in the sand.  Why do you think Democrats and Washington love people like John McCain, Olympia Snowe, and Bob Bennett?  I think even though it polarizes politics even further, this refusal to budge gives conservatives the spine that have been lacking for quite some time.  The Republicans I think will wake up to what is going on fairly quickly.  However, the Democrats still seem to have their blinders on:

"That the Tea Party would consider Bob Bennett -- one of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate -- too liberal just goes to show how extreme the Tea Party is," Timothy M. Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. "This is just the latest battle in the corrosive Republican intra-party civil war . . . If there was any question before, there should now be no doubt that the Republican leadership has handed the reins to the Tea Party."

We need to call a time-out before Tea Parties and like-minded conservatives go around beating their chests over Utah and Florida; we need to examine the endgame.  Buried in a Politico article - and mysteriously omitted by similar articles at the New York Times, Washington Post and the Huffington Post - is that Utah's lone Democrat in the US House also failed to avoid a primary challenge.  This development lends credence to the mainstream talking points that incumbents should be scared.   Rep. Jim Matheson voted against the health care law and will square off against a progressive challenger.  But is there something more here than just anti-incumbency fever?  Here's is where the danger lies and why I call these wins in Utah and Florida winning battles, not the war - we have to vote in November.  Voter amnesia might make a comeback.  We might have our conservatives on the ballot, but we have to get them elected against progressives in a referendum against Obama in November.  Conservatives on the ballot is a great start, but if we don't get out the vote in November 2010, our fight will have been for nothing and the mainstream media will claim that the final nail in the coffin of Reagan conservatism was hammered in.  So my conservative friends, let's keep our heads about us, we still have a long, hard fight ahead of us.  November 2, 2010 is D-Day.