Bennett's defeat

I was looking over a newly released opinion poll today from the Pew Financial Reform Project on financial reform. I tried to put myself in the shoes of a politician. If I were in Congress, how would I vote on this issue?
The poll was Utah-specific. It found 52 percent in favor of Congress passing reform now. Only 34 percent said the current bill would hurt business and the economy, and 72 percent want to end the idea of “too big to fail” by establishing an orderly way for large institutions to fail without bringing down the rest of the economy – something also in the bill. The poll has an error margin of 4.4 percent.
The problem, of course, is that this financial reform bill is a Democratic bill, and President Obama supports it. If I were a Republican member of Congress, would I support it (assuming I believed in it)? Is that even politically possible any more?

Bob Bennett’s defeat Saturday doesn’t bother me so much on its face. I think it’s healthy for democracies to purge themselves every now and then and to infuse fresh thinking. But I am concerned with the reasons given for his defeat.
The main one seems to be his vote in favor of President Bush’s bank bailout bill.
To be fair, opinion polls back in 2008 were the exact opposite of the one I just cited on financial reform. Here’s the wording from an Associated Press story we published Sept. 27, 2008:
“In an Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll, only 30 percent of those surveyed expressed support for Bush’s package. An additional 45 percent were opposed, with 25 percent undecided…. Aides to lawmakers in both parties say telephone calls from constituents are running heavily against the bailout — in some cases nearly 100-1 against, making the vote a potentially tricky one for a candidate in a competitive race.”
I remember when the chief complaint against President Clinton was that he paid too much attention to opinion polls, rather than doing what was right. Given what polls said in 2008, a lot of folks threw caution to the wind for the sake of what they felt was right.
The other thing Bennett seemed to do too much of was compromise, as in the health-care bill he co-sponsored with a Democrat. The message from Saturday’s convention was loud and clear. Don’t compromise. Don’t even shake hands with the other party.
Which leads me back to the financial reform bill. If even a majority of Utahns want it, could you vote for it without committing political suicide?