Free Republic

Conservative PAC FreedomWorks, a prominent Tea Party group chaired by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, is targeting Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch in the 2012 Senate race. The group, arguing Hatch has insufficiently conservative economic views, is launching the so-called "Retire Orrin Hatch" campaign at Utah's Republican Convention on Saturday. "It's clear that Senator Hatch is trying to capitalize on the popularity of the Tea Party movement by reinventing himself as a fiscal conservative," said Russ Walker, Vice President of Political and Grassroots Campaigns for FreedomWorks PAC, in a statement. "But his recent rhetoric and actions in favor of limited...

The 18 Senators Who Approve Breaking The Internet To Protect Hollywood from the not-cool dept Last fall, we noted that the Senate Judiciary Committee had unanimously voted to approve COICA, a bill for censoring the internet as a favor to the entertainment industry. Thankfully, Senator Ron Wyden stepped up and blocked COICA from progressing. This year, COICA has been replaced by the PROTECT IP Act, which fixes some of the problems of COICA, but introduces significant other problems as well. A wide cross section of people who actually understand technology and innovation have come out against PROTECT IP as written...

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) issued a press release today stating his intention to introduce a resolution next week disapproving of the policy concerning Israel that President Barack Obama announced on Thursday. “Israel is the United States’ strongest friend and ally,” Hatch said in the statement. “By calling for a return to the pre-1967 borders, President Obama has directly undermined her.”

Orrin Hatch, the senior senator from Utah, didn't mince words the other day on Hugh Hewitt's national radio show. The Democrats, he said, "play politics very, very tough, they play it well, and they don't give a damn about what's right and what's wrong." He was speaking about battles in Washington, but an even more vivid example can be found in Wisconsin, where the Democrats are still trying to overturn the 2010 elections. Blindsided last fall by the election of Gov. Scott Walker, the loss of both houses of the legislature and the US Senate seat held by ultraliberal Russ...

Several national publications recently speculated that Sen. Orrin Hatch was purposely deleting pages from his official website in an attempt to preserve his conservative bona fides. Hatch's office, however, squashed the rumors by thoroughly clarifying that the elimination of certain web pages was an "internal decision" related to the launch of "a brand new website." Here's a timeline of what transpired: Darren Elliot wrote a piece for Salon on Thursday revisiting the Presidential Eligibility Amendment, a 2003 bill introduced by Hatch that would allow foreign-born American citizens to run for president — a stance which at the time was primarily...

Suddenly Obama doesn't seem so unqualified... Top Senate Democrats sought to recruit Ken Jennings to challenge Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) back in 2004, the "Jeopardy!" contestant revealed Thursday. Jennings is famous for holding the record for consecutive wins on the quiz show. His streak of 74 straight victories brought him to the attention of the Democratic Senate leadership in 2004..... More at The Hill According to the article Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer PERSONALLY reached out to Jennings to run. Do you think Sharon Angle would've won if she was able to run ads showing how Reid thought...

“It’s good to allow them to work out their own problems rather than a one-size-fits-all federal government, dumb-ass program. It really is an awful piece of crap.” – Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on POTUS Obama’s health care law.

"Every state has different demographics, every state has different problems. It's good to allow them to work out their own problems rather than a one-size-fits-all federal government stupid, dumbass program," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said at Utah State University.

This is a poor quality video to say the least... but here is a video showing Orrin Hatch at CPAC. Hatch defiantly says he would vote for TARP / bailouts again. Sadly, some of the CPAC crowd stand and applaud. It seems like only the Ron Paul nuts are heckling him. What the heck? Is it "conservative" to support TARP? Is it "conservative" to support bailouts? I hope the Utah Tea Party will show Hatch the door like they did Bob Bennett.

This is a tale of two senior senators, both Republican, both up for reelection in 2012, both eager to win. And their approaches to the tea party couldn’t be more different. Six-term Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah is wooing the populist conservative movement. At a Tea Party Express town hall Tuesday night at the National Press Club, Senator Hatch said that he’s “very impressed” by the role the tea party is playing in helping “America to take back America.” Sen. Richard Lugar (R) of Indiana, also in his sixth term, is pushing back hard, telling the tea party: “get...

The Tea Party doesn't have a leader, but it does play favorites. Several of them turned up Tuesday night for a Congressional town hall hosted by the Tea Party Express and billed as the first of its kind. Crammed into an airless conference room at Washington's National Press Club, the standing-room crowd was energized and eclectic. A tricorn-hatted revolutionary hovered near a woman in a hijab. Activists snapped pictures and gave rousing ovations as movement stalwarts Rand Paul, Michele Bachmann, Steve King, and newcomers Allen West and Mike Lee pledged fealty to Tea Party principles. The senior statesman of the...

Six-term Republican Senator Orrin Hatch is trailing in a hypothetical primary challenge. The Utah Republican just saw his counterpart Bob Bennett knocked out of office last year in a Republican primary. Hatch ran for President in 2000, but did not get more than 3% nationwide. Hatch's last competitive race for Senate was in 1982. Utah Policy came out with a new poll of that state's Republicans, in which Hatch was placed third against former Governor John Huntsman and current representative Jason Chaffetz.

(RTTNews) - A prominent Tea Party group sent a message to members on Monday identifying five current Republican Senators that they intend to target in 2012. Tea Party Nation named Sens. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., as Republicans that need to be sent into retirement, accusing them of being Republicans In Name Only, or RINOs. The message cited Lugar's vote against a ban on earmarks as well as a his votes in favor of the DREAM Act and the START Treaty. Hatch was also criticized for being a "pork...

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act passed unanimously through the Senate Judiciary Committee this Thursday, but fortunately didn’t get much further. Oregonian Senator Ron Wyden exercised his power to place a hold on pending legislation to stop the bill from traveling to the senate floor, saying that Deploying this statute to combat online copyright infringement seems almost like using a bunker-busting cluster bomb, when what you need is a precision-guided missile. His hold will prevent the bill passing out of committee this year; proponents of the bill will have to wait until the next time Congress convenes, and then...

First came the Searchlight Brawler, Harry Reid. Now Orrin Hatch joins the ranks of the Senate tough guys . . . Asked whether—like fellow Utah Senator Robert Bennett—he might be defeated in his bid to obtain the Republican nomination, Hatch bragged "I'm a lot tougher" than Bennett, and considerably more conservative to boot. Hatch's macho moment came this morning during an interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC's Daily Rundown. When Todd asked whether he intended to seek re-election in 2012, Hatch, to his credit, didn't mince words, saying he was definitely running, subject only to continuing to feel physically strong....

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said over the weekend that he expects former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will run for president in 2012 and that he "would be my preference" for the GOP nomination. It's one of the first statements of 2012 support from a congressional Republican.

Senator-elect Mike Lee has tapped one of Utah’s most prominent lobbyists to lead his Washington staff and coordinate his transition from candidate to senator. Spencer Stokes doesn’t officially become a Senate staffer until Jan. 5, but he plans to bounce between Utah and Washington in the coming weeks as he tries to hire staff, set up the Senate office and ramp down his lobbying activities. “It will be an exciting time to be back in D.C.,” said Stokes, who believes American voters used November’s election to protest government overreach. He said Republicans are now positioned to make an impact on...

Centrist Senate Republicans are likely to get a new ally in Sen.-elect Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), according to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah will likely become the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee early next year. From that perch, he’ll oversee the GOP’s tax-writing policy in the upper chamber. Before then, however, Hatch is keeping busy: In coming weeks, he will be one of the leading figures in the battle over extending Bush-era tax rates, which are set to expire at the end of the year. As he looks ahead, Hatch predicts that there could be a “reasonable compromise” with Democrats and the White House. He urges the president to “come in good faith” to the negotiating...

More Utahns want Sen. Orrin Hatch replaced than want to see him re-elected to another six-year term, according to a Salt Lake Tribune poll of likely voters conducted the week before Tuesday’s vote. The survey noted that Hatch isn’t up for re-election until 2012, but asked if the vote were held today, would voters back him or someone else? Forty percent of likely voters would give him a seventh term, while 48 percent say they were inclined to favor another candidate. Twelve percent remained unsure. The poll, conducted by Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. had a margin of...