Chaffetz loves Mitt.
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.”
Orrin should have been primaried years ago.
“Have another doughnut and wash it down with scotch.”
Excellent advice. You’re a gentleman and a scholar.
Chaffetz just endorsed Mitt for president for 2012.
You're criticism of Palin for praising Hatch who endorsed Mitt in 2008 is ironic.
He'd be headed straight to mormon hell if he wasn't. He is obligated to support either Romney or Huntsman and Huntsman has even less of a chance than Romney.
Greta is a scientologist. Does that explain it? If she believes scientology, she will believe anything.
Crazy Eyes? Or perhaps is she with Coulter, waiting for fatso from NJ to get in?
At any rate she went over board about Gov Palin not wanting to trash Hatch on Gretta`s show. I suspect she was looking for something to attack Gov Palin with and that is all she could find.
I say it was premeditated, and that Hatch was just the vehicle she used.
I remember her once quite some time ago, not embracing Gov Palin when asked. Can not remember what it was, just that I remember I found her answer unsatisfactory shall we say. Something like she should not run, but be a king maker? I do not recall exactly.
So she MM is off my Christmas list
Every incumbent should have a challenger each election cycle. However, those who get upset about Sarah Palin saying a kind word about Sen. Hatch haven’t got enough problems in their lives.
Anyone supporting Hatch has been corrupted.
Did you know Hatch was born in 1934?
There is a huge difference between Bachmann and Palin! Michele Bachmann proved she was not fit to be President when she hired Ed Rollins!
She/MB is totally lacking in class!
Chaffetz loves Mitt.
Perry and Bachmann BOTH supported infanticide etc, not that many years ago!
Perry for Gore etc, was a Democrat, Bachmann for Carter etc was a Democrat.
Voting Democrat means you support Democrat appointments to the Supreme Court, means you are good with infanticide, good with removing God`s Word from the class room and public square, the list is long of the terrible things you support.
I hardly think that Palin supporting McCain out of loyalty, is on the same scale as the evils Perry and Bachmann supported.
And BTW Governor Palin never was a Democrat at any point, was always on the right side of the issues. CNN has what they call damning evidence (as they say) that shows Governor Palin in video at a Pentecostal Church I believe as a teenager saying all the right Christian things.
ALSO, many NON Christian`s have never supported abortion and related evils, so this business that they were pro abortion before they had conversions to Christ, was somehow a legit excuse for being on the wrong side?
Well, Sarah was never on the wrong side!
“he [Levin] was also touting up Romney in 2008.”
He backed Romney very late after Thompson dropped out only to stop McCain. Half truths are your specialty, aren’t they?
Now you and your little band aren’t content to trash Palin; Youi are now going after that notorious liberal Mark Levin /sarc/
I hope I am watching when you get the zot.
I watched the interview and even posted the video.
Did Governor Palin endorse Hatch for reelection or just say some nice truthful things about him?
I swear, I’m sure it was the latter.
The fact of the matter is that we NEED Hatch on the judiciary committee if Sarah Palin is elected.
Hatch knows how to push CONSERVATIVE judicial nominees through a hostile senate.
Chaffetz has no experience in this area and would never be appointed to the judiciary committee anyway.
I'm sure it was the former. Palin needs Hatch in the Senate if she is elected. She's smart enough to know that and she's more politically astute than you or me.
Anti-Palins lie even better than Obamaites:
NOWHERE did Palin give Hatch an endiorsement of support, but you already know that. She simply refused to trash him, because she’s not burning any bridges to the Presidency...but why bring up the truth when you’re dealing with people who plainly find the truth an obstacle.
Liars deserve leaders that reflect their values, and that’s the most substantive argument that Palin shouldn’t run...I give it to you as a freebie.
If we cannot get a conservative senator in Utah where can we?
“Did Governor Palin endorse Hatch for reelection or just say some nice truthful things about him?
I swear, I’m sure it was the latter.”
*******************************************
You are right, Onyx. She did not endorse him. All she said was that he had been a long time fighter for the balanced budget amendment (true) and that the TEA party should work with him on this issue (also true).
Mark Levin actually endorsed him based upon his overall and record and Chaffetz’s lack of a record before he was in Congress. Apparently, Chaffetz is a “Mitten” and was a Mike Dukakis organizer in 1988 (when Rick Perry was stumpimg for AlGore..
This canard about Palin was started by the erratic Michele Malkin (who apparently did not listen to the interview very well before she jumped to her conclusion) and picked up by a nobody named Leon something or other at Perry Central (Redstate) to try to divert attention away from Perry’s “crash and burn” entry into the race.
She’s a million times more politically astute then me, *fer sure* and a whole lot smarter too, but I still didn’t hear her endorse him.
I hope Hatch appreciated her wonderful words and remembers them.
Malkin has to write about something and she is a good conservative writer and a staunch supporter of the TEA PARTY. I think she quibbles a little too often, but I share her grief and conserns about Hatch. Like all fossil incumbents, Hatch runs to the Right come election time and he’s been in the US Senate since the dead Robert Byrd was a boy...lol.
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