The anti-establishment political tide that ousted a three-term Republican senator in Utah has already spread well beyond the grassroots conservative tea party movement and continues to cause waves.
On Tuesday it toppled a longtime Democratic congressman from West Virginia and several White House-favored lawmakers elsewhere find themselves confronting liberal voters who do not want party elites telling them what to do.
In Pennsylvania, many Democrats seem unmoved by US President Barack Obama’s pleas to embrace former Republican Arlen Specter in next Tuesday’s primary.
Specter’s nomination seemed virtually assured last year when the entire Democratic establishment, including Governor Ed Rendell, backed him in exchange for his switch from the Republican Party. But Representative Joe Sestak, who bills himself as the contest’s true Democrat, has erased Specter’s big lead in the polls.
Obama has cut a last-minute TV ad for Specter in the hope of avoiding an embarrassing upset.
Should Specter lose, he would be the third prominent politician in a month to fall in intraparty contests dominated by restless voters who show little respect for established figures and party leaders.
In Florida, Republican Governor Charlie Crist was expected to cruise into the Senate, with barely a thought to his party’s primary. But conservative Marco Rubio and tea party activists drove Crist out of the Republican Party, and he is now running as an independent.
In Utah, 17-year Senate veteran Bob Bennett fell victim on Saturday to the once-unthinkable claim that he’s not conservative enough for Republicans. His sins, according to tea party activists who taunted him at a Republican convention, include voting for the 2008 bank bailout pushed by former US president George W. Bush.
In Democratic races, senators Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Michael Bennet of Colorado are battling viable primary opponents attacking them from the left. Obama supports both incumbents, but their challengers portray themselves as more faithful to Democratic priorities.
In West Virginia, 14-term Representative Alan Mollohan lost the Democratic nomination for his seat to state Senator Mike Oliverio on Tuesday.
Oliverio attacked Mollohan from the right, rather than the left, and focused on the lawmaker’s history of ethics probes.
Perhaps the clearest example of veterans’ woes is the tough challenge in Arizona facing Senator John McCain by conservative J.D. Hayworth, a radio talk show host and former House member.
Some elected officials say bipartisanship is the biggest victim of strong anti-establishment movements. One factor cited in the Utah Republicans’ rejection of Bennett, who had a lifetime rating of 84 percent from the American Conservative Union, was his bid to forge a health care compromise with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden.
The Wyden-Bennett bill went nowhere. But the Utah events show the Republican base “doesn’t want them to compromise” at all, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.
“The Republican Party now has the narrowest base that I have seen” since entering Congress 29 years ago, Hoyer said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is also in trouble this year, but his re-election problems loom in November, not the primary.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
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A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number