Posted on 08/19/2011 5:24:40 PM PDT by Mozilla
I just read a very bizarre blog post about entrenched incumbent Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch by Fox News anchor Greta van Susteren and then watched an equally distressing interview van Susteren conducted last night with Sarah Palin regarding Hatch.
First, the title of van Susteren’s blog post: “Is someone trying to manipulate the UTAH Tea Party vote unfairly away from Senator Orrin Hatch?”
Van Susteren absurdly suggests that dark, sinister, unnamed, and uninformed forces in Utah with outside backing are somehow trying to take away Hatch’s seat through nefarious means. She’s clearly talking about D.C.-based fiscal conservative groups like FreedomWorks and Club for Growth that support possible GOP primary challenger and current Rep. Jason Chaffetz (whom I also support). But she won’t come out and just name these groups. What gives?
Moreover, she fails to explain how it’s bad for a few Beltway-based groups to “manipulate” the race by encouraging primary challengers, but it’s fine for Beltway-based van Sustern to influence readers with her ill-informed dissection of the race and her promotion of Hatch’s purported Tea Party bona fides.
Hatch’s people have lined up big national guns from outside Utah to help him hold on to his power and perks. It seems clear to me Hatch is calling in every last chit he has amassed over four decades in the Beltway. It’s the only rational explanation for the beyond-laughable promotion of Hatch as a — gag — “Tea Party visionary.”
[snip]
Utah voters themselves sent a clear, potent message that entrenched incumbency is no argument for more entrenched incumbency last May when they booted Hatch’s Senate big government Republican colleague Bob Bennett from office in the primary. Were they “manipulated,” too?
Van Susteren’s sloppy blog post (which doesn’t include a single hyperlink) provides erroneous facts about the Tea Party movement, erroneous characterizations of the core Tea Party agenda, and erroneous analysis of Hatch’s fiscal record after three decades in office. After insinuating that unprincipled motives are fueling those who oppose Hatch, she wraps up with a rather specious conclusion that based on Hatch’s creaky old support for the balanced budget amendment, she “would think that fact alone would make him the champion (the visionary?) of the Utah Tea Party.”
She ends with a question: “Am I wrong?”
Flabbergastingly so.
[snip]
Orrin Hatch is the antithesis of the Tea Party spirit. He is a mascot for big-spending Beltway entrenched incumbency who has consistently joined hands with destructive Democrats.
He slobbered over corruptocrat Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd.
He co-sponsored the $6 billion national service boondoggle and dedicated it to his good friend Teddy Kennedy, with whom he also joined hands to create the ever-expanding SCHIP entitlement.
He supported tax cheat Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner from day one, lavished praise on Joe Biden’s balls, and embraced and defended Attorney General Eric Holder’s nomination because, he said, “I like Barack Obama and I want to help him if I can.”
He was an original sponsor of the open-borders DREAM Act illegal alien student bailout and voted for the massive TARP bailout.
And there’s much, much more from his support for Fannie/Freddie bailouts to farm subsidies and beyond.
Most importantly: How do Utah Tea Party people feel about Tea Party pretender Orrin Hatch?
The same way they feel about his former big-spending entrenched incumbent in Utah — former Sen. Bob Bennett…
[snip]
And yet on her TV show interview with Sarah Palin Thursday night, van Susteren accused Tea Party folks of factual omissions.
[snip]
She then went on to minimize opposition to Hatch as “small” and criticized Hatch’s critics as “disruptive.” Van Susteren looked perplexed and irked that Tea Party people would want to turn out an elected incumbent in the Republican Party.
Hello? From day one, the nascent Tea Party movement has always been about holding both parties accountable for their records. “Disruption” of Washington business as usual is the entire raison d’etre of the grass-roots revolts and out-of-control taxing and spending. Token support for a balanced budget amendment means nothing if the BBA sponsor has spent nearly 40 years — as Hatch has — rubber-stamping expansion after expansion of the welfare and entitlement state, then hooking up with corruptocrat Dems like Chris Dodd and Teddy Kennedy to preserve and protect pet boondoggles.
Most devastating of all, Palin offered ZERO rebuttal of van Susteren’s nonsense and agreed that Tea Party folks should “work with” Hatch instead of “shoving him out.”
VAN SUSTEREN: You know, I see a lot of good, hard-working Americans who are in the Tea Party movement. And then, you know, from time to time, I see things like — you know, today — today, I wrote on Gretawire a blog about what’s going on within the Tea Party movement to Senator Orrin Hatch. I mean, he’s getting attacking by a small portion of the Tea Party movement for not being Tea Party-ish enough, and it’s — and it fundamentally goes around the balanced budget amendment, which is so — which is the mantra of the Tea Party movement.
But if you do a little research, Senator Orrin Hatch going back to 1979 in the U.S. Senate was pushing the Tea Party — a balanced budget amendment. Yet some of these people in the Tea Party movement won’t recognize it. They won’t look at the facts and they go after him. So it’s, like, even within the Tea Party movement, there is — you know, there’s a disregard for the facts and an effort to be sort of disruptive even within the — within the group.
PALIN: Well, and you’ll find that within any venue, within any group, Greta, especially when it involves politics. But to your particular point about Senator Orrin Hatch — he is doing good in terms of trying to get a balanced budget and he has been for the last couple of decades. And he’s pushed hard for some fiscal reforms that we have got to see implemented, otherwise, you know, crony capitalism is going to continue coming out of Washington, D.C., and we’re going to continue on the wrong path and we will be bankrupt.
So people like Orrin Hatch, who now especially — he’s rising up with quite aggressive talk about the balanced budget amendment and other things that he has seen for all these years need to be done. We need to be agreeing and embracing his idea and working with him to make sure that that happens, instead of shooing him away and shooing him out of a Tea Party movement, if you will, when he agrees with such a basic fundamental principle that we must see implemented, and that’s just simply balancing the doggone federal budget!
Is this the same Palin who just a few weeks ago boldly (and rightly) wrote: “Everyone I talk to still believes in contested primaries.”
Yeah, it would take supporting McCain, oh wait.
OK, that theory is out the window.
Mark Levin's reason for supporting Hatch is Hatch's decades-long battle to enact a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and his reluctance to support Chaffetz's thin resume as well as Chaffetz's questionable tea party credentials. From Levin's facebook page today defending Palin's comments on Hatch:
"Now, I have endorsed Hatch. His opponent, Jason Chaffetz, has an extremely thin record. Prior to serving the last 31 months in the House, he served as Jon Huntsman's state-wide campaign director and then his chief-of-staff. When I endorsed Hatch, Chaffetz called me to try to convince me to reverse course. But after I spoke to him, he could not point to any evidence of his conservative credentials apart from his votes in Congress. Prior to that, I can find no conservative movement or Tea Party credentials. And I told him so. I think Chaffetz has been a very solid member of Congress. I support him for re-election. He has earned it. But beyond his 31 months in the House, his record is very recent, and I am not prepared to support his potential primary candidacy over Hatch. Despite some of Hatch's votes, his overall record is very solid, and he was a crucial senator throughout the Reagan years. And if we are to measure the last 31 months, thereby comparing Hatch with Chaffetz head to head, Hatch has been every bit as solid as Chaffetz. Moreover, Hatch has been a leader on the balanced budget issue for decades, while Chaffetz was working on the Dukakis campaign in college. So, yes, I have some disagreements with parts of Hatch's record, but overall, it is a good conservative record. He is no Dick Lugar, et al."
Sarah’s rating on illegal immigration is a D+ while Perry is a D-.
Sarah’s comments on Hatch are VERY disturbing. I guess I must be getting PDS.....not
This is all just a silly game.
The gutless performance by the house GOP is telling. What's been the response to Obama's amnesty? Nothing.
I’ve been around as long as Orrin Hatch, cannot for the life of me understand the claim he’s not a conservative, and Freepers have never come up with persuasive enough specifics.
I view Hatch as a hero for his defense of Clarence Thomas, and have heard him to be consistently and passionately conservative over the years.
No backbone over the years???? I watched every minute of the Clarence Thomas hearings and Orrin Hatch was an in your face, take no prisoners fire breather. He is also one of Thomas’ closest friends.
You're trying to make me laugh, aren't you? Well, that did make me smile, so I'll give you that.
Lindy, please. You're about as credible on the subject of Sarah Palin, as Algore is on the weather. And just about as laughable.
And that's her lovable side....
I tell ya, that one may as well become a charter member of DU. She completely agrees with them, where it comes to Palin. You know what they say about the 'friend of my enemy'.
I;m not against Palin Myself. Great baited her into supporting Hatch. But I was unhappy last year with her endorsing people like Carly Fiornia, and Meg Whitman. But in this case Greta brought up the issue and she could have dis agreed but didn’t. But Greta wanted to go that direction so it is Greta’s fault.
Having said that. People have attacked Bachmann on this site much worse than anything against Palin. So it is what it is. I’ve been appalled how they dislike Bachmann so much for president, some posters. But it is there right to do so. Fact is, lot of candidates and everyone is trying to weed out the field.
“Yep, this proves that Sarah is a globalist RINO bilderberger patsy/s”
You tell it, FRiend. Yes, sir. Sarah is obviously unfit to walk on American soil. Backing Hatch? Bad, bad girl.
There is so much crap going on that neither Perry nor Palin meet the conservative purity of whomever is on stage.
With respect to you and the entire FReeper community, everyone needs to back off and stop forming a circular firing squad.
I like both Palin and Perry, but the viscious invective I’ve see here on FR toward both is depressing. I haven’t decided which person I’m supporting yet.
Can we keep this discussion civilized? I can be as mean and nasty as anyone on this board. And I don’t care if I’m kicked off FR. I have other homes.
I bought a big box of 12 dozen white-frosted doughnuts with jimmys and walnuts. Here:
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Help yourself. Peace, or whatever the hell is going on...
I love Sarah and I ‘will’ vote for her over the rest of the crowd, but I would like to see Hatch go down! He’s been there too long.
He was an excellent House manager during the impeachment days of yore. Go figure.
Hey Sarge, did you see the /s at the end of my post?
Have another doughnut and wash it down with scotch.
Probably the alternate universe, perfect, pure candidate that has never made a mistake in their life, has managed to vote in a way that pleased all conservatives all the time, has never changed their views on any position, has always endorsed the perfect candidates, has all the political skills needed to win any office they run for, etc, etc - basically the fantasy candidate who will never, ever appear. I swear if Reagan were running today he'd be savaged by half the conservative blogosphere. Vetting is great, but the over the top hysteria over every issue someone disagrees with is absurd.
They already hated Palin. Nobody that has supported Palin is going to dump her because of Hatch. They would have to be complete idiots to do that, and if they were complete idiots they never would have supported Sarah in the first place. Its kind of like a Zen Koan.
Absolutely.
You forgot the Trilateral Commission. I'm sure she's up to her eyeballs in that. I discovered this while I was searching for "the truth" about 9-11. Freemasons are tied up in this thing too, but I can't say much right now because I'm being watched by the vegetables on my window sill.
I guess MM does not want Governor Palin in the race? I wonder who her candidate is...Bachmann?? LOFL
2010 Senator Hatch supported the interests of the American Conservative Union - Lifetime 89 percent during their legislative career up until 2010.
2010 Senator Hatch supported the interests of the Eagle Forum 100 percent in 2010.
2010 According to the National Journal - Conservative Composite Score’s calculations, in 2010, Senator Hatch voted more conservative on economic, defense and foreign policy issues than 84 percent of the Senators.
2010 According to the National Journal - Conservative on Economic Policy’s calculations, in 2010, Senator Hatch voted more conservative on economic policy issues than 87 percent of the Senators.
2010 According to the National Journal - Conservative on Foreign Policy’s calculations, in 2010, Senator Hatch voted more conservative on foreign policy issues than 72 percent of the Senators.
2010 According to the National Journal - Conservative on Social Policy’s calculations, in 2010, Senator Hatch voted more conservative on social policy issues than 72 percent of the Senators.
2010 According to the National Journal - Liberal Composite Score’s calculations, in 2010, Senator Hatch voted more liberal on economic, defense and foreign policy issues than 16 percent of the Senators.
2010 According to the National Journal - Liberal on Economic Policy’s calculations, in 2010, Senator Hatch voted more liberal on economic policy issues than 0 percent of the Senators.
2010 According to the National Journal - Liberal on Foreign Policy’s calculations, in 2010, Senator Hatch voted more liberal on foreign policy issues than 0 percent of the Senators.
2010 According to the National Journal - Liberal on Social Policy’s calculations, in 2010, Senator Hatch voted more liberal on social policy issues than 27 percent of the Senators.
2010 On the votes used to calculate its ratings, The Club for Growth attaches more value to those votes it considers more important. For 2010, The Club for Growth gave Senator Hatch a rating of 97 percent.
2009-2010 Senator Hatch supported the interests of the Americans for Prosperity 92 percent in 2009-2010.
2009-2010 Senator Hatch supported the interests of the Campaign for Working Families 100 percent in 2009-2010.
2009-2010 Senator Hatch supported the interests of the Christian Coalition of America 100 percent in 2009-2010.
2009-2010 Senator Hatch supported the interests of the Concerned Women for America 85 percent in 2009-2010.
http://www.votesmart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=53352&type=category&category=17
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