{"id":26725,"date":"2017-12-06T23:57:29","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T23:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26725"},"modified":"2017-12-06T23:57:29","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T23:57:29","slug":"watch-this-intraparty-battle-get-real-hot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26725","title":{"rendered":"Watch this intraparty battle get real hot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/160311-mitt-romney-ap-1160.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-26726\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/160311-mitt-romney-ap-1160-300x163.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/160311-mitt-romney-ap-1160-300x163.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/160311-mitt-romney-ap-1160-768x416.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/160311-mitt-romney-ap-1160-1024x555.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/160311-mitt-romney-ap-1160.jpg 1160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mitt Romney wants to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Utah.<\/p>\n<p>His candidacy will depend on whether Orrin Hatch seeks re-election next year. Hatch, the Senate&#8217;s longest-tenured Republican, hasn&#8217;t yet made his decision.<\/p>\n<p>But, oh my, this fight is getting nasty before it&#8217;s even started.<\/p>\n<p>You see, Mitt is no fan or friend of Donald John Trump. He has called the president a &#8220;fraud&#8221; and a &#8220;phony.&#8221; The president&#8217;s wing man, former White House strategist Stephen Bannon, has decided to suggest that Mitt was a draft dodger, that his religious mission work in France during the Vietnam War was a tactic to keep him from serving in the military.<\/p>\n<p>Romney&#8217;s allies in Utah are coming to his defense. They have blasted Bannon for questioning Romney&#8217;s love of country, his patriotism, his character; Bannon even took a swipe at Mitt&#8217;s entire family.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2017\/12\/06\/mitt-romney-steve-bannon-fight-orrin-hatch-mike-lee-282111\">Hatch defends his friend<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There has been some speculation that Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, might run even if Hatch decides to seek another term. I would doubt that will occur.<\/p>\n<p>My hope is that Mitt goes for it. I also hope Hatch decides to retire. He&#8217;s been on the job for decades. Hatch, at times, has shown an ability and willingness to reach across the aisle to work with Democrats; my guess is that Romney could do the same if he gets elected.<\/p>\n<p>As for Bannon &#8212; the guy that Trump and White House chief of staff John Kelly fired &#8212; he ought to tone down the tough talk. It&#8217;s unbecoming.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s more, Romney has done more in service to his country than Bannon ever thought of doing.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Romney happens to be right about the president, someone I consider to be the <em>phoniest fraud<\/em> ever to occupy the office. A U.S. Senate seat would give him a wonderful platform to hold the president accountable for his words and deeds.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mitt Romney wants to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Utah. His candidacy will depend on whether Orrin Hatch seeks re-election next year. Hatch, the Senate&#8217;s longest-tenured Republican, hasn&#8217;t yet made his decision. But, oh my, this fight is getting nasty before it&#8217;s even started. You see, Mitt is no fan or friend of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26725\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Watch this intraparty battle get real hot<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[61,1424,1941,3101,7097,5051],"class_list":["post-26725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-political-news","tag-2012-election","tag-donald-trump","tag-gop","tag-mitt-romney","tag-stephen-bannon","tag-us-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26727,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26725\/revisions\/26727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}