Posted on 08/19/2011 8:56:32 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
As faithful readers of this blog know, I was reporting on the Tea Party movement long before it was even called the Tea Party movement — and long before a legion of Johnny-come-latelys in Washington had grabbed their fiscal conservative costumes and joined the parade. I can remember not being able to get mainstream media coverage on the day of one of the first taxpayer protests in Denver in February 2009. We’ve come a long way, baby. From day one, I emphasized that the grass-roots activists leading the Tea Party charge have been as opposed to Big Government Republicans as they have to Big Government Democrats. They and I have not forgotten that bailout-mania began under the Bush administration, which pre-socialized the economy and handed it on a silver platter to Barack Obama.
Which brings me to GOP Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch.
The other day, he had the unfathomable audacity to proclaim himself a “Tea Party person.”
“Look, I think the tea party people deserve a lot of credit,” he said in response to a question about Democrats and Vice President Joe Biden reportedly calling freshman GOP members of Congress terrorists.
“We wouldn’t be where we are without them. The fact of the matter is I’ve been a tea party person I think since before the tea party came into existence."
Are you freaking kidding me?
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.
How do real 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 — who got the boot in May.
As I noted back in April 2009:
If only the condescending cable TV anchors at CNN and MSNBC had paused from wallowing in gutter puns about tea bags, they might have reported an even more significant phenomenon: Tea Party protesters were as vocal in their criticism of Republicans as they were of Democrats. In Salt Lake City, Utah, a crowd of 2,000 repeatedly booed GOP Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, who both supported the $700 billion TARP bailout, and protested GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman’s decision to accept $1.6 billion in porky stimulus funds.
Refresh your memories of how Utah Tea Party activists booed Hatch, Bennett, and McCain 2.0 presidential candidate and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman (at 1:24 in the video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgeDk4jyZ5A&feature=player_embedded
Now, the six-term Hatch — first elected in 1976 on an anti-entrenched incumbent platform (Hatch’s campaign line then against his opponent Frank Moss: “What do you call a Senator who’s served in office for 18 years? You call him home”) — wants to stay in Washington yet another term after FOUR DECADES in government. He has been lining up some big conservative names. And now there is some sort of pro-Hatch, anti-Freedomworks website using my words to support Hatch.
I don’t know what the beef is between Dick Armey and Orrin Hatch. But I will tell you this: While Armey’s pro-amnesty stance bothers me, bailout Swamp Creature Orrin Hatch’s desperate bid to cling to power by morphing himself into a Tea Party cheerleader aggravates me far more.
I will do whatever I can to support Hatch’s challenger — likely the staunch conservative GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who is a fiscal warrior, tough on illegal immigration, and has a terrific record taking down the GOP establishment.
Forty-two Thirty-six continuous years and untold trillions of dollars in expanded government is enough — 42 is too much.
It’s time for Orrin Hatch to go.
Hatch sponsored the Ginsburg and Breyer Supreme Court nominations; Helms voted against both. People in UT are uninformed about Hatch.
Hatch believes that you have to accept a president’s nominees, he screams very loudly when the democrats block republican nominees. That is his principle. That is his area of expertise. He’s a good guy and I think Utah knows his position on judicial nominees, especially Supreme Court nominees.
I appose Rabscuttle! Just wanted to go on record early..Cheers
Sarah Palin or Bust
Gov Palin did not endorse Sen Hatch. She did nothing of the kind. She simply responded to a question brought up out of the blue and said that he has a good record on fighting for a balanced budget amendment, and that he’s the type of guy the tea party should be working with at the moment to get one.
She never said he should be re-elected, never said he shouldn’t be primaried, or anything of the sort.
Some people blew her brief comments about him way, way out of proportion.
Wrong about one? She didn’t endorse Hatch. She just replied to what Greta asked her about him. I doubt she’d given one instant of thought to him.
I think Greta gets along with Hatch, he’s been on her show a bunch of times. Greta also gets along with Gov Palin so she probably figured she’d frame a question in such a way to have her say something nice about Hatch that might help him out since he is somewhat under fire.
So she brings him up to her and asks her to respond. If you notice Gov Palin first said that it wasn’t a big deal and that things like that(being criticized) will always happen. Then she just repeated the BBA stuff that Greta had brought up.
True, she didn’t come out against him or anything, but she didn’t endorse him either. She just said some fairly bland words of support for his efforts to get a balanced budget amendment. No big deal.
Should she have said “well, Greta, I’m not really going to get involved in what’s happening in Utah right now, there are more iomportant issues”. Probably. But people are really blowing this up.
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