Posted on 06/25/2011 4:11:57 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
Welcome to extreme makeover, the Sen. Orrin Hatch edition.
The Utah Republican — fearful that 3,500 locally elected grass-roots, state GOP delegates could boot him from office 10 months from now — has spent the past several months recasting his image in a bid for a seventh term. He’s shining a spotlight on his 34-year Senate voting record as a conservative stalwart while minimizing his penchant for bipartisan deal-making.
(snip)
Cognizant of his precarious position with grass-roots Republicans and tea party activists in a way that Bennett was not, Hatch is determined not to let the same thing happen to him.
“I’m making an effort to emphasize [my conservative record] because for some reason, some of these outside groups don’t recognize all of the 35 years of conservatism I’ve done,” Hatch, 77, told Roll Call on Wednesday in a brief interview. “I voted over 12,000 times, and they pick an issue here, an issue there. Well, it would be surprising if you couldn’t find something you disagreed with, with that kind of voting record.”
(snip)
But past votes on the debt limit and the Troubled Asset Relief Program have motivated groups like those to search for candidates to oppose him at the April 21 convention next year.
(snip)
In the 1990s he collaborated with the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), known as the liberal lion, to create the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. In 2009 he briefly participated in a bipartisan gang attempting to reach a compromise on health care reform.
(snip)
A Senate Democratic aide lauded Hatch’s work on free trade, patents and tax reform. “Though he’s had to be more partisan than normal, he’s also worked well to move the ball forward in a bipartisan manner,” the aide said.
(Excerpt) Read more at rollcall.com ...
Hatch, 77How about a simple chorus of "New Blood!"
Utah. PLEASE get rid of this relic.
We in Utah remember, Orrin. We remember. And we will remember come convention time. And we will remember come primary election time. Then we will remember you, but not too fondly.
Thirty-four years in the Senate ought to automatically eliminate this RINO from consideration in next year’s primaries. What’s the matter, Utah? You can’t find any one else?
Senator Starchy Collar
Three words; Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Pretending Conservative Ping!
If Spielberg called Central Casting for a “politician”, they’d send him Orrin Hatch.
FOH
and the horse he rode in on.
No question!
Never count your Hatch before he chickens.
IIRC, the Senator was the one who ran to the microphones the day after the 911 attacks and spread the word on national media to the world that we (CIA, etc.) were tracking bin Laden’s satellite phone.
The satellite phone went dead a short time thereafter.
That event was greatly responsible for it taking a decade for us to finally ‘get’ bin Laden.
I cannot understand why this old fossil is still around.
There should be an age limit on Congress, too many old stench’s like Hatch just smell up the Congress.
76 years old 35 uears with his lips on the Gov.t teat. Surely he has stol—,saved enough to retire.
Just like Juan McCain, Hatch becomes a “conservative” for 6 months, every 6 years.
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