By Ed Wallace/ Mar 13, 2017 / Publisher at Utah Standard News
Why would President Donald Trump, destroyer of the DC establishment and slayer of swamp creatures, encourage Orrin Hatch to run for an eighth Senate term? Trump, the master of the deal, built his political brand on being the outsider while running against the Washington establishment and promising to “drain the swamp.”
Instead, Trump has quickly become acclimated to the ‘swamp’ and, instead of shaking things up, has apparently jumped into those lukewarm waters and seems perfectly comfortable being there. Instead of beating the established swamp creatures, Trump is joining them. At the very least, he seems to have fallen prey. Sad.
This leaves me with the question: Is Trump squandering the opportunity that his supporters gave him, or, are we being played? Or, is Trump being played? The way to get along in Washington is by playing along. Instead of being the leader that promised he wouldn’t play along, Trump seems to be captive to the very forces that he thinks he is fighting against.
Has Trump bought into the narrative that he needs the entrenched Republican establishment to make his campaign promises a reality? If so, he has broken his promise to the millions of Americans who voted for him. Instead of keeping his promise to unseat the “small group in our nation’s Capital” that has reaped the rewards of government, he is building a growing attachment to that same establishment while jilting and throwing his supporters into that same swamp he promised to drain. This is bigly.
Apparently, President Trump believes he will need leaders like Hatch to turn his campaign promises into reality. After all, Hatch has worked with moderate Republicans and across party lines on health care in the past. And apparently, Hatch received a personal request from Trump to run for an eight term.
“His pitch is he needs me,” Hatch said of Trump, according to CNN’s Manu Raju. “Things are going to be just fine.”
Hatch campaigned and helped Trump in Utah and Trump won the state. Roll Call pointed out that the Hatch and Trump ties run deeper. Hatch’s former chief of staff, Rob Porter, now works as staff secretary for Trump and also helped on Trump’s transition.
During the 2012 election campaign, he promised voters that this term would be his last term, and his “best term.” “Look, this is definitely going to be my last term. I’ve committed to that. And it’s going to be the best doggone six years you’ve ever seen.”
Senator Orrin Hatch is super-glued to the Washington ‘establishment’. He is the definition of the establishment. He is one of the most powerful RINO’s in the Senate. He is a moderate Republican, at best, and bristles at any suggestion that he is anything other than a true “rock-ribbed” Conservative.
In the four years since his 2012 landslide election, Hatch has repeatedly broken his promise to serve as a conservative senator. He has amassed a staggering currant-term score of 33% (F) from Conservative Review and Heritage Action, compared to a Senate Republican average, and his own lifetime average, of 52%.
He has voted to fund Obamacare, the 1,582 page Omnibus spending bill, the Gang of 8 bill to give amnesty to illegal aliens and he voted 16 different times to raise the debt ceiling by a grand total of $7.5 trillion and supported President Obama’s liberal big-spending agenda. He also voted for the TARP bailout — $700 billion to bail out irresponsible Wall Street bankers and was instrumental in helping the Obama administration‘s agenda by supporting Obama’s DOJ nominees Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. He played a unapologetic leading role in the fight to provide some form of federally supported child care and has also been a long-time advocate for Merrick Garland, who President Obama nominated to the Supreme Court in 2016. Hatch stated that Garland would be a “consensus nominee” and that there was “no question” he would be confirmed.
In 2010, Utah voters clearly spoke against Obamacare and its individual mandate by electing Mike Lee to the Senate. Utah went on to sue the federal government over the law, yet Hatch cosponsored individual mandate legislation in 1993 that shows just how out of touch he is with his constituents. Hatch was the Senate’s third-highest earmarker. Long before taxpayers were forced to pick up the bill for President Barack Obama’s failed experiment in crony capitalism – Solyndra – Hatch sought no less than seven earmarks totaling $20 million for renewable energy.
Senator Hatch is now a creature of the Washington swamp and is not equipped to fight for conservative values or for fiscal responsibility. In 2011, 93% of the roughly $5 million raised by Hatch’s campaign came from outside of Utah with about 17% percent from the District of Columbia. Who’s the real outsider?
“Seven-term incumbent Hatch embodies everything that’s wrong with the GOP brand,” CR Senior Editor Michelle Malkin wrote in 2015. “He’s a mascot for the Big Government Republican parade and masquerade of career politicians who stand for nothing and roll over for everything.”
“Orrin Hatch epitomizes the problem with the establishments of both parties,” said CR Senior Editor Daniel Horowitz. “He views the Senate as his personal retirement home rather than an opportunity to fulfill his promises to his constituents”
Jon Huntsman was thinking of running against Hatch until he was conveniently taken out of the picture by Trump to serve him as ambassador to Russia. Hatch waited a whole 24 hours before rescinding his promise to make this his “last… best term.” Here’s what that hypothetical race looked like in January: Huntsman would beat Hatch 62% to 21%
In a new poll released Thursday by the Salt Lake Tribune and the Hinckley Institute of Politics, 78% of Utah voters believe strongly that Hatch should not run again. A strong majority of 58% believe he should “definitely not” run again. Either way, Hatch, who has spent almost half of his life in the Senate, will be facing an uphill battle… especially if he is pinning his hopes on Trump’s endorsement, who is not well-liked in Utah. Hatch has an estimated net worth of $3,962,048, making him the 40th wealthiest in the Senate. Comparatively, Mike Lee’s worth is set at $16,001 which puts him in 99th place. So, who is benefiting most by voting the 82-year-old in for an eighth term… Utah or Hatch? You vote. You decide
In 1976, Orrin Hatch attacked Frank Moss for serving too long in the Senate. He asked, “What do you call a senator who’s served in office for 18 years? You call him home.” Senator Hatch has now sat in the Senate for 40 years.
He is wily enough to begin lurching to the right and present himself as a conservative as the 2018 campaign approaches. Daniel Horowitz describes this as the “Hatch effect.” Hatch is an expert, along with many other Utah politicians, at using his vote to fool voters when his seat is on the line.
It’s time to drain Utah’s swamp and send Hatch home to a well-deserved, and long-overdue, retirement.
Mark Levin wrote ““I would encourage a young, charismatic, articulate conservative to take him on”
Jonathan Johnson…. are you reading?
“Windows of opportunity open and then close. By staying in the present, handling what’s in front of us, and riding the waves of opportunity when they come, we follow the natural order of things” – Author unknown