Goliath smirks: The Orrin Hatch Machine shuts down a challenger

MichelleMalkin.com ^ | August 22, 2011 | Michelle Malkin

[bobk333]

GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz had raised the hopes of grass-roots conservative activists outside the Beltway for months with strong indications that he would mount a David vs. Goliath challenge to the four-decade incumbent Hatch:

The Chaffetz calculus is not simple.

On one hand, Hatch is widely seen as vulnerable to a conservative challenger and Chaffetz is well-known and liked among Utah’s tea party base.

However, Chaffetz was a leading spokesman for House conservatives during the recent debt ceiling debate and sponsor of the Cut, Cap and Balance proposal, which advocated slashing government spending and requiring Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment.

He would have to give up that rising stature in the House to go against a senior senator in Hatch, who has a decisive fund-raising advantage and has been working feverishly for several months to repair relationships in Utah.

...Unfortunately, Chaffetz is bowing out this afternoon. I confirmed it with him by phone. He still thinks Utah needs fresh blood and that “Hatch is everything that is wrong with Washington,” but says he believes he’ll better serve the fiscal conservative cause by staying in the House and holding GOP leadership’s feet to the fire.

I understand his reasoning, but I know there are many grass-roots conservatives who have watched the Orrin Hatch Machine at work and are heartbroken.

Over the past few weeks, Hatch has sucked up to national conservative figures, mounted a desperate rehab effort to bolster what few conservative credentials he has left, and, according to my sources, used his incumbency machine to buy off erstwhile Tea Party leaders.

I have been told that local and state vendors, pollsters, and campaign literature printers in Utah have all been scared off doing any work for any potential Hatch challenger.

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[bobk333]

Michelle Malkin is completely right about Orrin Hatch.

We need to go after *all* the senators, excepting the Tea Party contingent: DeMint, Paul, Lee, Toomey, Rubio and Johnson.

They are all corrupt -- they are forced to be corrupt to join the "club," where all the senators protect each other and help each other stay in office. In order to stay in office, they must serve special interests who pay for their campaigns, they must build strong alliances with the media and their state political machine, and they must lie to the American people.

Senators are slick. Don't believe anything they say. They are experts at saying what you want to hear and then doing just the opposite. They arrange it so that the recently elected senators take all the risks and do all the talking and the ones within two years of their elections go silent. They arrange the votes so that they get the outcome they want but make it look like the senators up for reelection voted for the people. The Balanced Budget Amendment vote Hatch sponsored in 1997 was totally rigged to fail by one vote.

The longer they've been in the Senate, the more corrupt they are, and Orrin Hatch has been there a long, long time. Somehow, some way, they were able to get to Chaffetz and get him to resign.

Tea Partiers, please keep an eye on the Orrin Hatch situation and be prepared to help if the Utah Tea Party can get that situation turned around. Please contact Jason Chaffetz's Washington D.C. office at (202) 225-7751 and urge him to run.

ORRIN HATCH MUST GO!

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[okie01]

Hasn’t Cong. Chaffetz endorsed Mitt Romney for President?

[SoConPubbie]

Hasn’t Cong. Chaffetz endorsed Mitt Romney for President?

Yup, you're right.

Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz endorses Mitt Romney over former boss Jon Huntsman in 2012 race

Sorry Michelle, if this guy believes that Romney is the answer, there ain't a drop of Tea-Party blood in his veins.

On this one Michelle, you're dead wrong!

[hosepipe]

Chaffetz should shut the old liberal down...
Hatch has been very friendly to high power democrats..
And will get democrat propaganda help.. it won’t be easy..

[antceecee]

My opinion on Orrin is mixed. He has disappointed when you really need him....contrary to the message he emanates... that same message that make you really like him. Then he hides when the Dems are doing their crazy Socialist Dance and votes to help support them to get a new DJ! Sorry Orrin... you really need to retire. We need new fire and NOT the Romney coddled pick!

[tlb]

>>> ORRIN HATCH MUST GO!

Meanwhile outside the echo chamber and back in the real world, the American Conservative Union rewards Sen. Orrin Hatch ‘s 2010 voting record with a perfect score of 100 in ratings released Wednesday.

Hatch’s career ACU rating is 89.5. For comparison’s sake, former Sen. Bob Bennett ‘s conservative voting ratings are 86 and 83.8 for 2010 and his career, respectively.

http://www.conservative.org/ratings/ratingsarchive/2010/2010SenateRatings.htm#UT

[ConservativeTeen]

Even McCain got a 100 for 2010 according to the ACU. Hatch’s lifetime rating is about the same as RINO Lindsey Graham.

[Minus_The_Bear]

"ACU ratings" don't mean anything.

The American Conservative Union is the same group that let the homosexual group Go Proud sponsor CPAC.

John McCain has a high rating... is he conservative? Hell no.

[Minus_The_Bear]

Orrin Hatch endorsed Romney too.

It's Utah. Do the math.

[WellyP]

Hatch stood a better chance of loosing than Snowe of Maine. If Hatch were to lose that would put the super RINO Snowe as the ranking member of the committee and she, as usual would continue selling her sorry a$$ to the higher bidder. she always has and always will until she is evicted.

[DH]

Senators are mostly lawyers. Lawyers are trained liars. Lawyers/Senators enrich themselves while serving in public office and “one hand washes the other” is their philosophy and credo.

There is no question that they got to Chaffetz. They probably went back to the day he was born to find dirt on him. Probably found that he had soiled a diaper in public.

[colorcountry]

Where their true allegiance lies. The morg. It’s needs must come first.....

I love Chaffetz, and voted for him, but I DO realize where his first loyalty is - and if there ever came a time for him to chose between country and his church he would support his church. It is true for Chaffetz, it is true for Hatch and it is true for Romney.

How do I know? I was on the inside for 45 years, and my ancestors before me since the beginning.

[Rearden]

I have a small pad on my desk that’s been there for several months now. At the top of the page it reads “Primary List 2012 and Beyond.

At the top of the list is Mitch McConnell. Next is Olympia Snowe followed by Orin Hatch. There are several others who have been added including John Boener and my own CongCritter Eric Cantor.

I had hopes for Chaffetz but what the heck. I can promise y’all this, I pray that challengers step up to throw our bunch of losers into the street, even if that doesn’t happen, I will work tirelessly and spend my money to support even a Democrat if that’s what it takes to blast these bastards out of their cozy little nests.

I mean, what the heck is the difference anyway. I would rather fight a dem. in 6 years in Utah than Orin Hatch again, and again, and again...

[USS Alaska]

Sorry Michelle, if this guy believes that Romney is the answer, there ain't a drop of Tea-Party blood in his veins. On this one Michelle, you're dead wrong!

Chaffetz is from Utah...Utah...Mormon, who do you think he'd support?

I wished he went up against the rino, but maybe, after he examined the options, he decided to wait it out.

If he hangs out in the house for a few terms, he is a lead pipe cinch to win the senate seat after hatch hangs it up.

[zeugma]

THe fact that we can't get rid of these entrenched, corrupt politicians during a serious time of crisis that was aided and abetted by them really puts the kabosh on any hopes that we'll be able to reform our political system before it is too late.

Even McCain got re-elected, and he's as RINO as they come.

Actually, that isn't really true. McCain and Hatch represent the Republican party as it really is. Those of us non-progressive conservatives who would like to see the Constitution be something other than a doormat for politicians to wipe their feet on are definitely not welcome in the party.

Face it folks, the demopublians own washington and the media. We are screwed.