If I were Hatch's fan, I wouldn't tell anyone either.
Posted on 05/24/2012 11:36:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I’m not going to tell readers that I’m Senator Orrin Hatch’s biggest fan, but I can tell you, I certainly understand why Sarah Palin has endorsed him, and agree with her 100%.
After breaking the news on Greta’s show, Governor Palin eloquently laid out her reasons for backing Senator Hatch on Facebook. Watch the video and read her note here.
As Sarah notes, Orrin Hatch has consistently been the strongest, loudest voice, championing Conservative nominees to the Supreme Court. This is a big deal, as the next president will likely appoint two or as many as three new Justices to the Court.
That he was a strong ally of Ronald Reagan’s is definitely a plus in Sarah’s eye, mine too.
Senator Hatch has also been one of the few voices of reasons in the Senate, when it comes to reigning in spending.
Budget issues are just as important to Sarah, as the rest of America.
Not long after the endorsement, Dave Montero tweeted this about Hatch’s opponent in Utah:
Dan Liljenquist just introduced as “a Bain Capital, Mitt Romney Republican.” Not sure I’ve heard that kind of intro before. #utpol #utgop
I shared this with Stacy Drake, noting anyone who would allow themselves to be introduced as a “Mitt Romney Republican” is not a real deal Tea Party guy.
Stacy did some digging and found that Liljenquist is backed by Dick Armey’s phony Tea Party group Freedom Works. And Liljenquist has never been a Tea Party kind of guy.
Liljenquist has enjoyed unofficial support from the monied tea party group FreedomWorks but doesn’t himself identify as a tea partier. “He’s never labeled himself a tea party [candidate],” Holly Richardson, his campaign chairwoman who resigned her own position in the Utah state house to run his campaign, told TPM. “He has been labeled a tea party candidate, but in fact, he’s a reality-based candidate. He feels like the reality is: We’re out of money.”
Liljenquist has never fully embraced the tea party — he told the Washington Post more than a year ago that the “froth and bubble” of the movement would die down long before concern over the economy goes away.
Stacy has a lot more here.
Mark Levin, spent almost 30 minutes on his show defending not only Sarah, but Orrin Hatch. He says he’s proud of Sarah Palin.
This is a long tape, but please listen.
Levin has old audio of Senator Hatch fighting Senator Joe Biden as the democrat party conducted what has been called a “high tech lynching” of now Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. You’ll hear other Republicans on the tape, but it was Orrin Hatch who forcefully stood up for Thomas.
As Levin points out, Senator Hatch has been a leading voice for Liberty and Freedom.
(VIDEO AT LINK)
It should also be noted Senator hatch was one of the few who said they would “fight to the end” for Robert Bork as the nominee for the Court, when other Republicans ran and hid. We know how that ended.
Levin calls out Dick Armey, a big open borders, amnesty guy, as is Hatch’s opponent, Dan Liljenquist.
It goes without saying that I’ve never trusted Armey, who pretends to be a Tea Party guy, while shilling for the Republican establishment and their agenda.
There’s more to all of this though. Sarah has called out Hatch before, noting he’s one of the few in the Senate looking to do what is right on fiscal matters. Robert Costa over at National Review Online has, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.
It seems over the years, Sarah and Hatch have developed a deep respect for each other. They’ve developed a solid relationship and trust.
The two people least surprised by Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Senator Orrin Hatch this week are Palin and Hatch. In the Twitter and Facebook era, they became political allies the old-fashioned way: through handwritten letters and personal phone calls.
It’s an unlikely, politics-fueled friendship that’s fit for a Robert Caro book. Hatch, a soft-spoken grandfather, is one of Palin’s top outside mentors. He encourages her and cheers her. They share family stories, they discuss history, and they talk about legislation.
“It’s true,” Palin tells National Review Online. “He’s a warrior.” She respects his record, especially his work on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Hatch has frequently been an influential figure during contentious Supreme Court confirmations.
Even though she is 30 years his junior, Palin has grown to appreciate Hatch’s historical perspective on Congress, the presidency, and the conservative movement. “I respect public servants who benefited from and grew under the tutelage of Ronald Reagan,” she says.
The warmth is mutual. “She and her husband are the handsomest couple that I’ve ever met,” Hatch says, smiling, as we chat in his spacious Senate office. “They’re both top-flight people and I got angry with the mainstream media constantly running her down.”
Hatch openly acknowledges that he has long and doggedly sought Palin’s support. For him, strong personal relationships are an elemental part of politics. They do not trump his principles, he says, but they have enabled him to become a force on Capitol Hill.
Read more here.
I know most of us are in a “throw em all out” mood. I know I am! And it was Orrin Hatch who, said famously years ago of his opponent who had been in the Senate too long, when asked what do you call someone like that, “you call them home.”
But lets look at this election in Utah, and lets be pragmatic.
First, we are learning that while Hatch may not be perfect, he’s been damned consistent over the years, consistently on our side.
Hatch is also the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, a very powerful committee. If Republicans can take back the Senate, Hatch will be running that committee. It would be nice to have someone who thinks like Sarah Palin when it comes to slashing spending and balancing budgets.
On the other hand, Dan Liljenquist is not of the Tea Party mindset. He’s made a point of saying so on more than one occasion. As a new member, he would have no rank, no real standing.
Again, I want to see new blood. If I had my way no one in Congress would serve more than 12 years, the equivalence of two Senate terms. That said, we don’t have those rules in place, yet, so we have to work with what we have.
Throwing someone out for the sake of throwing them out is not always the best plan.
Let’s not forget, besides Sarah Palin and Mark Levin, Senator hatch has the backing of the Tea Party Express, the NRA, and Steve Forbes, just to name a few. That’s a impressive group of people.
In endorsing Senator Hatch Sarah ended by saying:
I join other conservatives like Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, and Tea Party leaders like Sal Russo in encouraging Utah voters to return Orrin Hatch to the U.S. Senate. Since Mark Levin has always got a way with words, read what he recently told Senator Hatch: “I feel that you would be… a terrific elder statesman to a lot of these other young guys who I’m going to be pushing in these other states.” I’m with Mark. That’s spot on.
We need Orrin’s conservative Reagan-like leadership – and our new crop of conservative senators Richard Mourdock, Deb Fischer, and Ted Cruz might need some friendly advice finding their way around the Senate.
It’s not a bad idea to have an elder statesman, especially when that elder has proven to be on our side, and his replacement has an iffy record, at best.
On the other hand, her endorsement of Cruz in Texas might be quite beneficial to Cruz. Dewhurst isn't going to get a majority on May 29, so the TX senate race will be determined in a runoff July 31.
I might be unusual in my thinkin, but I could care less how Conservative a politician is, because once they have been there 8+ years, I feel they are corrupt, period.
Out with the old, in with the new....
Orrin Hatch was Ruth Badermeinhoffgang Ginsberg's biggest cheerleader during confirmation hearings.
I don't see Palin's opinion on this in quotes. Seems this author is taking considerable license as to Palin's reasoning.
yitbos
I still like Palin but I am against hatch and want his butt out. I realize that no one is going to agree with me on every issue.
I think it was a bad tactical move by Palin. Pissed off about a 1/3 to 1/2 of Freepers here. I really think she is trending mainstream RINO, and forgetting her rogue roots. Too bad.
Not sure if it was a bad tactical move or not. Time will only tell. For the life of me, Why did I not make notes that could be called upon later to the number of times Hatch has done that “reaching” thing or maybe all the times he has to slip in that “my friends on the other side of the aisle” crap.
Maybe what we are seeing here is a fossil in DC who went there with the “right” ideas, who became seduced by the power and status, now has his wake-up call in that he was challenged for the first time. He saw the tea leaves when Bennett was “Primaried” and how his wavering from his ideological roots has come home to roost. He knows this and has been as of late been shy from using his “friends” comments and by comparison is not seen as much on the news channels as he once was.
His biggest problem with me is that through his recognition of the reasons he finds himself in this fight, he has not come out and asked for forgiveness for forgetting why he was sent there in the first place.
When I hear Levin, Hannity and the rest defending his record by bringing up all the good things he has done, it reminds me of a saying I learned while in the Army. It only takes one “Oh Sh!t!” to erase a boatload of Atta-boys. Maybe if Hatch had learned that one early in his life, he could be the standard bearer for the conservative movement even today. Instead, people like Rand Paul, Jim DeMint and to some degree Marco Rubio at least had the courage to pick up the flag and run with it while Hatch just stood there and watched it being trampled.
As far as Freedom Works goes, I have held a dubious viewpoint ever since Dick Armey globed onto it right as their buses reached DC for the first Tea Party March. Lindquist (sp) just doesn’t come across as one to join those who picked up the flag, but one thing for sure Ted Cruz certainly seems to fill the bill.
I’m done with Sarah.
Strike One: supporting John McCain
Strike Two: The year long tease - and then not running.
Strike Three: Orin Hatch.
The deeds aren’t matching the words with Sarah. i don’t trust her anymore.
Strip away the extraneous and we have in this article, two pluses for Hatch—his support for Thomas on the Supreme Court, and his chairmanship on the Finance Committee.
The rest is a negative attack on his competition and other conservative groups working for his opponent.
Is this all there is? Not much “there” there that favors Hatch.
Liljinquist may have a counter to these charges, if he has the money to answer it.
Any Congresscritter who has been in the House more than a decade and/or the Senate for more than 2 terms has been there too long.
They become part of the problem.
Sorry, Sarah, but you are wrong on this one, just like you were wrong on endorsing the old fossil from AZ.
Hatch is what he is, but this time, with his race, "new" smells familiar and much worse.
I understand her McCain endorsement; honor and integrity means you repay your debts and McCain helper her.
These days, she's the one who helps.
“Senator Hatch has also been one of the few voices of reasons in the Senate, when it comes to reigning in spending.”
That statement doesn’t seem to square with:
1. Voted 16 times to raise the debt ceiling a total of $7.5 trillion.
2. Voted for TARP.
3. Ranked in the middle of the earmarking pack from 2008 to 2010, and in 2010 was 28th highest among the nation’s 100 senators.
Check with Liljenquist’s website to see where he stands on spending and taxes: http://www.danforutah.com/issues/
The article may be right that Liljenquist is weak on immigration. If so, I agree that that is troubling. However, as far as I know, unlike Hatch, he hasn’t been pushing a Dream/Nightmare Amnesty.
36 years is plenty of time to fight to reduce the size of government. How well has Orville done in that respect?
I donated to Lilenquist..
No she wasn’t.
Nope.
Comments?
Nope.
The ACU (American Conservative Union) ratings for 2011 can be found on the internet.
This venerable, trustworthy vetting organization posts a section where it lists "Senate Winners and Losers".
"Winners" listed having a 100% conservative voting record are:
Coburn, DeMint, HATCH, Inhofe, R. Johnson, Lee, Rand Paul, Rubio and Vitter.
Like Sarah, I'll take Hatch, warts and all, over an untried noobie who does not have the long-time, established conservative credentials I look for in a candidate. Mrs. Palin obviously felt the same way as I when she endorsed Orrin Hatch.
Senatorial voting records etched into the Congressional Record tell the tale.
Leni
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