Dethrone Orrin Hatch

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As conservative challengers mounted their opposition to Bob Bennett’s re-election bid in 2010, the incumbent sought to deflect their criticisms of his own conservativism by pointing to his favorable rating from the American Conservative Union—a group that ranks and judges policies and politicians on their fidelity to (their definition of) conservatism.

As the weeks of campaigning went on, this defense was not proving too effective; the delegates were looking at his record of constitutional apostasy and not placing much value in the rating by this largely irrelevant institution. Bennett doubled down, and was assisted in his defense by the Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, oddly enough. On May 5, 2010, the Trib wrote:

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Utah blogger Michael Jolley highlights some of the leftists Senator Hatch has helped select and confirm. “Senator Orrin Hatch has a long record of supporting the nominations of liberal justices and White House appointees,” writes Jolley.

He goes on to list Hatch’s involvement with and support of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Cass Sunstein, Stephen Breyer, and Timothy Geitner.

Read the details here.

Members of Congress, along with all sorts of other government employees and officers, take an oath that binds them to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” But what happens when the person taking the oath is the enemy?

We’re prone to think of enemies as cave-dwelling Muslims or tyrannical dictators half a world away. These, of course, when they are actual enemies, are covered under the word “foreign.” But what is a “domestic” enemy of the Constitution, and how would such an individual carry about his campaign to eviscerate the supreme law of the land?

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Our last post presented a typed letter from Senator Hatch to Utah Senator Dayton. Read the post to see some of the many problems that letter contains.

One reader emailed us an interesting addendum — a copy of the last page of that letter, but with a handwritten note from Senator Hatch directly to Senator Dayton. It reads as follows:

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Two years ago, Senator Orrin Hatch penned a letter to Utah Senator Margaret Dayton. Hatch had previously visited with her and other Utah Senators, and Dayton sent an email with some follow-up questions.

The first question dealt with the perceived problem of incumbency and the weakness of Hatch’s conservative record. In his letter, Senator Hatch was exasperated at the allegation that he was and is not the most conservative person in the Senate: “I believe my record, not only of advocating, but advancing a conservative agenda stands for itself,” he said. What is part of that record? Well, the following:
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As documented previously, one of the main arguments employed by the Hatch campaign staff is that if their boss is not re-elected to his seventh term, then Senator Olympia Snowe will become chair of the influential Finance Committee. This is all couched in rhetoric that communicates fear and worry—after all, you don’t want Snowe raising taxes on us all, do you? After all, as Hatch’s campaign is quick to remind us, she voted to pass Obamacare out of committee!

So I thought it would be enlightening to examine the records of these two senior Senators to see if the argument has any merit. Opencongress.org’s comparison tool shows that since January 2007, they have voted the same 72% of the time. That’s one overlapping Venn diagram! (See above right.)

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In past years, as Senator Hatch was asked if he had any regrets amongst his thousands of votes over his three and a half decades in the Senate, he would reply that he had a "solid conservative record"—more so than anybody else on the hill, he would often add—and that really the only thing he could think of would be his opposition to naming Martin Luther King Day as a federal holiday 25 years ago. That’s right: in 35 years of voting, the only regret he claimed to have was a benign vote on a holiday 25 years ago.

One example is a November 2010 radio appearance with KNRS host Rod Arquette, where this question came up. Arquette asked “As you look back in the last two years, are there any votes that you regret right now?” Hatch’s reply:

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Over a decade ago, Senator Hatch invited Napster founder Shawn Fanning to Brigham Young University. The event was a Senate Judiciary Committee field hearing in which Fanning testified on the subject of peer-to-peer file sharing. Hatch had held previous hearings about Napster and related technologies, and was looking to implement legislation to better protect copyrighted material from being shared on the internet without due compensation to the creators.

In a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting three years later, Hatch advocated a policy he saw as beneficial to accomplishing that objective. An individual testifying to the committee stated that “no one is interested in destroying anyone’s computer” as part of cyber-security efforts to frustrate the actions of those seeking such files. Hatch responded: “I’m interested,” suggesting that such an action “may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights.”

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Abraham Lincoln once observed that “the best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.” This lesson is not lost on Senator Hatch, though in his implementation of the idea he has introduced a variant: the best way to destroy a (political) enemy is to employ him.”

It was no surprise to anyone when then-Utah Republican Party Chairman Dave Hansen resigned his position to transition to full time employment for Hatch’s re-election campaign. After all, he had been on Hatch’s payroll during his tenure as party chairman. Vice Chair Kitty Dunn also quit her position to join Hatch’s team. Jason Powers and Jessica Fawson, both well-known political consultants, are also on Hatch’s payroll.

Again, this is all unsurprising.

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Today, Senator Hatch tweeted as follows:

33 Senators on my [Balanced Budget Amendment] – need to keep pressure on to make a reality. Can’t let kids, grandkids pay the price of $14 trillion in debt.

This is a widespread concern amongst Hatch’s constituents; $14 trillion is no paltry sum. It’s a message that he’s been persistently pounding on the pre-campaign campaign trail. Last month, he said that President Obama isn’t treating the nation’s debt crisis “with the seriousness it deserves,” continuing:

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