a majority of republicans voted including bob bennett. that was the end of bob bennett's career. when president obama was elected shortly thereafter and came up as his first legislative initiative to have a stimulus package suddenly the republican caucus was out. jim dean lind --demint was heard to say we're going to turn this into obama's waterloo. the senate republican leader -- the republican senate agenda is to defeat obama. this was three years and 11 months before the 2012 election. and nobody in the republican caucus except for olympia snowe, susan collins and arlen specter would talk to the democrats about the bill. i had been a child during the 1930 depression and i didn't want to see another depression. my father who was a russian immigrant in 1930 found -- make it hard -- we live in wichita and my father packed up the family and headed east to philadelphia where we had a sister in depressions. that is what families do. they move in with one another to survive. those were really tough times and i had been there and it was plain that the vote was going to be highly preca

even bob bennett is making reappearances in terms of his revolvement.o i think we're sort of at that moment. will the tea party sustain the kind of strength to make an event like this make cantor do something like this, or are the rhinos, the supply moderate conservatives about to come in and get. >> why do you make the donation in the first place? >> i guess in a bid to not associate himself with john boehner and show he's from a different side of the tracks. we're all pretty well aware of that. speaking of wine knows, catherine, i'll go to you, richard. you probably want to comment on this first. while touring a zoo in st. louis on friday, newt gingrich was bitten by a penguin. >> to which i have to ask, was penguin okay? >> see i knew you'd have a witty rejoinder. newt gingrich is still in this race. apparently -- >> and looking for votes in a zoo. what could be more sensible. >> doesn't have the penguin vote >> he walked out on an interview after the first question. >> i got an alert he had an interview with a student newspaper in many north carolin

i'm bob bennett. i want to start by telling you, we have a bed of a problem. -- bedbug. that is odd because we do not have any beds. our staff goes out every day to tenderloin hotels, they work with the clients that have major disabilities, mental health and substance abuse, and physical disabilities. they come back to the office with bedbugs. these are staff who mostly come right out of school and they start immediately working with clients whose complexity it dwarfs the complexity that their experience -- that very experienced staff at kaiser would have to deal with. they do it day after day. we are an old agency. we have many staff to have been with us more than 30 years. we have a retirement plan in 1992. it lasted a year. everybody has been around since 1992 has a little nest egg. nobody else does. we set out to five years ago with a gold of raising our staff salary so that they could afford to live in san francisco and send their kids to school and retire when they got to be 70. that is a pretty modest goal. we have made some progress towards that by cutting our ad

senator bob bennett got upended. orrin hatch looks to be safe. can he get 60%?> similar in indiana with center dick lugar. >> absolutely. a six-term senator. under the umbrella of death of the moderates. he is known for working for democrats over his term. he has taken some flak for that back home. he just put out a poll showing he is tied with dick lugar, so that is a prior coming up on may 8. it will be watched closely by nationals servers. >> another race that is being watched in north carolina, they're dealing with the gay marriage debate. >> yes. game marriage was one of the big issues the last cycle. -- gay marriage was one of the big issues the last cycle. this is going to be a national battleground for the presidential election. there is a governor's race. the gay marriage popping up, but interestingly, the republican candidates explore the gay marriage ban but do not want to elaborate. that shows you have a culture shifting even when the republic -- even in the republican party. >> thank you for turning his. >> time to check traffic and weather every 10

a senator like bob bennett in utah, a very good senator, 93% conservative rating makes one bad vote ande can't win a republican primary. and senator hatch is facing that problem now. and on the democratic side a strong senator like joe lieberman can't win a democratic primary. and i have timed my book to come out right now in the midst of the election season to inform the people about what is going on behind the scenes in very blunt direct terms, and to offer suggestion as to how to bring the -- the center back and it is heartening frankly, to hear that the tea party is being weakened a little when governor huntsman says he couldn't be elected. reagan couldn't be elected. perhaps we will have some sense for the senate to take back control. >> you do write in a very candid way in this book, and you wrote, for several years the fringes has been purchasing senator . . . now you say for several years, but really this started -- i mean it has been going on a while, but particularly in earnest since the 2010 elections, right? >> well it happened in 2010 with bennett in utah and castle in dela

the primary knocked out bob bennett two years ago. >>> chris christie is fighting back after someoneclosed at the bruce springsteen concert last week. >> during "rocky ground" which is a spiritual song. people sat. i sat up on the seat and i put my head back and closed my eyes and listened to the song. >> spiritual. all right. chris christie. that was politics now. >>> elite access. all you need is cash, connections and karma. if you can't afford nearly $36,000 to gorge with george, how about $500. that got 1,000 into tyler perry's estate or for free. mitt romney had kid rock sing to 1,000. trump hosted for an ann romney birthday. couples mesmerized by michelle paid $40,000 in d.c. one of three fundraisers this week. those are small potatoes. a new obama campaign asked for 75,800 to be a conference chair. that's the largest ever. that gets divvied to meet campaign finance laws. nearly 31,000 for dnc. the last across state party commissions many of which are key battleground states as you can see including ohio and florida. now the dash for cash jump-started long ago try day 65 of the

senator and former boxer orrin hatch is fighting to avoid the fate of former utah senator bob bennettf the most conservative voting records in congress was ousted in 2010 by enraged voters and tea party favorite now senator mike lee. >> they are angered because obamacare has just been passed so they flooded the caucus meeting and we had a angry electorate who wanted blood. almost all incumbents. >> utah election system is the only one in the country where new candidates as well as incumbents only earn the right to compete by garnering a high percentage of the vote at both caucuses and state convention. in 2010, when moderate republicans stayed home, caucus goers ended senator bennett's career. >> you can almost have a u.s. senator or governor elected in utah with fewer people than would elect a student body president of the high school. >> when pundit chatter began to predict the political demise, hatch began a campaign to fill caucuses with a friendlier crowd. something competitors noted. >> senator hatch did a marvelous job in stacking the caucuses. >> long serving senator faced two

. >> reporter: many illegal analysts say it too reminiscent of two years ago when bob bennett was oustede convention because of a growing shift towards the tea party and by the way, the democrats in utah also holding their state convention this weekend, and, three-term state senator scott howell, this man, securing 63% of the vote, meaning he avoids the primary, something hatch was hoping for, and, now goes straight through to the general election, and he'll face either hatch for lilenquist come november and senator hatch defeated howell, interestingly, in 2000 when they ran against each other. >> harris: you are getting this on your blackberry as well, but lilenquist's campaign released, you talked about the platforms of the tea party and he says, quote, i'm pleased with the race we've ran as we talk to our delegates of message of fiscal discipline and bold innovative ideas resonates with them and after weeks of hearing the race is over, it is clear momentum is on our side and he goes on and you hear two themes here, he said there is a youth movement in the g.o.p. and now is talking abo

the fact of the matter is, he had a clear warning sign from his former colleague, senator bob bennett. >> emphasis former. >> for who did not make it to this convery long, but i think across the board the tea party influence is probably easing a little bit, and it's more blended up into other concerns. a presidential election year is about bigger things, and it's a bigger sort of electorate, if you will, than the midterms were in 2010. >> i want to show our viewers and show you all, cnn-orc poll, and it compares the approval ratings of presidents in april of re-election year. we see president obama now is 49%, but if you go on down the line, everybody is 52%, 54%, 54%. is that -- does that signal anything? i mean, is this a race? we get this feeling for a little while that, oh, president obama seems to be on the mark. all of a sudden not so much. >> he is not on the mark. his advisors know he is not on the mark. it's a very close election, and fraijly, he is luckily to be at 49%. within the margin of error, he is right at the 50 point. it would be much more worrisome for him if he was

hatch trying to avoid the fate of bob bennett a three term senator ousted at the 2010 gop convention.er from new york. now, back to "justice" with judge jeanine. >> judge jeanine: we're back with courts gone wild, my favorite section. joey jack so jackson and richae with us. a new way to fight high gas prices. a woman is suing for $5 million. her car was reopposed and she wants her gas back. the repo man, guys, gets sued. and the question is can she wen if the repo man comes in and takes your car anded you have gas in the tank. is the gas your property? >> of course, it is your property. listen, i don't know what is more rich, is the car more or the gas more nowadays? it is outrageous. you offset it. split the difference and call it a day. >> are you entitled to be reimbursed for the gas in the car? >> she should be. h her attorney analo gazed it to the fuzzy dice. >> what if i left my jacket in the car. can i have that back? >> banks aren't nice. they he don't like us. >> and he don't blame her. are from my mother watches the repo man or whatever that show is, she loves it. but the t

orrin hatch got out of the convention into the primary, which is better than what bob bennett did twore we watching the tea party's influence while still there starting to fade or not? >> i think it is. i think it's because the american public is starting to see them as obstructionist. they went in saying we'll get all this done and we'll compromise but after the last two legislative years they say we have to get something done, this is awful. they can't just dig in. i think it is fading a bit. >> it's interesting. you have dick luger in trouble in his primary. that's a tea party challenge. he's a statewide elected official that's challenging him. not an out of nowhere personality like we saw two years ago. hatch almost avoided the primary. mitt romney is no tea partier. where do you put them? >> i still think the tea party has influence inside the party. i think if you look at the way people run for office and try to posture themselves and the way people try to move themselves, it's all in relationship to the sense that the tea party is a powerful force within the party and you can't

keep in mind, tea party folks targeted bob bennett in 2010 and defeated him. is the last primary, and they are alive in utah. >> welcome back israel ortega and angela maria kelley and amy kremer, cofounder of the nonprofit american grassroots coalition. thank you, all, for joining me. >> thank you for having us. >> we have tea. i have amy kremer and tea on the set here. i'm really encouraged are youç here, i am fascinated by where the tea party is going now, and as a movement. and so there is clearly evidence there is still life, but certainly seems like a very different movement today, than it was in 2008. just from your perspective, what is the tea party movement? >> we're still here, but we're online. not out on the streets protesting and having rallies. you don't see the visuals that you saw back in 2009 in early 2010, butÑi what happened yesterday in utah, and we were not involved in that race, but it's evidence that the movement is alive and well and crass roots activism still does make a difference. >> you know, that's a fascinating response. we're onl

senator and former boxer orrin hatch is fighting to avoid the fate of former utah senator bob bennettpite one of the most conservative voting records in congress was ousted in 2010 by enraged voters and tea party favorite, now-senator mike lee. >> they're angry because obamacare had just been passed, and so they flooded the caucus meetings, and we had a very angry electorate who wanted blood on almost all incumbents. >> reporter: utah's election system is the only one in the country where new candidates as well as incumbents only earn the right to compete by garnering a high percentage of the vote at both caucuses and state convention n. 2010 when moderate republicans stayed home, caucus goers ended senator bennett's career. >> you can almost have a u.s. senator or governor elect inside utah with fewer people than would elect a student body president at a high school. >> reporter: when pundit chatter began to predict his political demise, hatch began a campaign to fill the caucuses with a friendlier crowd, something his competitors noticed. >> senator hatch, i have to admit, did a mar

in addition, he is being hit from fiscal conservatives, a group that also went out against bob bennett in utah and supported marc rubio in florida have also come out against dick lugar and also to put money into mailings. the group is run by a former indiana congressman. it really has dick lugar being attacked from all sides. host: what is the tone for the moonlight? sometimes incumbents don't get as much vocal support and someone who is an upstart can get a lot of lawn signs and people generating buzz. do you think it's gone to translate into votes? guest: i definitely think it will translate into votes. the question is who comes out to vote. it's true. i have seen far more yard signs right now for richard murdock. his supporters are very much energized and engaged. dick lugar gets a lot of support for more independent people who are not as active all the time in politics and view him as a statesman, somebody they are used to supporting dancing on the national stage. but will they come out? there have not been that many poles. one of the recent ones show dick lugar --it was done with

and those senate elections look add what happened to bob bennett, look at what happened to lisa murkowski, look at what happened to mike cassel in delaware, look at what might happen to orrin hatch and to in the senate race with dick lieu daughter in -- lugar in indiana. we're seeing, basically, an ec to magnet -- ec toe magnet force even if broader electorate doesn't necessarily feel that way. >> i see charlie firestone standing there, so i think that means our time has come to an end. this has really been an eye opener in terms of the important role that race will play in this 2012 race. thank you all, charles, karen, norm, thanks very much. [applause] >> thanks for a very interesting panel. the next panel is going to be on the latino vote, so we're going to get more in detail on that. we're going to take a 15-minute break. when we come back, i believe c-span moves from c-span2 to c-span 1. the rest of us will just move for refreshment and come back. we'll start promptly at 10:45. thank you. >> well done. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the aspen institute is hold