Senator Hatch: Provoking A Split Within Conservatism…Again Paul Weyrich Monday, Apr. 05, 2004 The year was 1976. Ronald Reagan had lost the GOP's presidential nomination to Gerald Ford. The prospects for conservative victories in Congress were not very promising. But I was sure I had found a rising star. He was articulate. He was charismatic. He claimed to be a principled conservative. I thought of him as a potential presidential candidate. As chairman of the Free Congress PAC, I backed him at the state convention (In his state you have to get a certain percentage of the convention vote to...
