Guess Who’s Not Conservative Enough For Utah.
“There is no reason why Orrin Hatch should represent Utah,” said Russ Walker, vice president of political and grassroots campaigns for the group. “Utah is far more conservative than Orrin Hatch.”
FreedomWorks bets big against Orrin Hatch, Politico
March 12, 2012
“More conservative than Orrin Hatch . . .” Let that sink in for a moment. I’ll pause here, and start again a few extra spaces below so you have time to try to process the unprocessable.
space
space
space
Orrin Hatch, 36 years Senatized, has garnered a lifetime 89.3% grade from the American Conservative Union, let’s round it to 90%. Ninety percent of his votes since January 3, 1977 have been deemed to match so-called conservative principles. For comparison, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont,with a real live unrepentant democratic s.o.c.i.a.l.i.s.t, gets a failing grade of 6.52.
How did this happen to the venerable and heretofore conservative favorite? Well, short answer: the Tea Party. To name a few burrs in the Tea Party saddle, Hatch supports stem cell research; voted “Yea” many times to raise the debt ceiling; supported the SCHIPS (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) reauthorization in 2007; and voted for TARP and the Housing & Economic Development of 2008. Them’s hangin’ offenses.
But, still, Hatch? Not conservative enough? Compared with whom? (Dare I say it? Oh, what the hell.) Hitler? Things get weird in Utah.
In any event, tomorrow night Utah Repubs caucus and pick 4,000 delegates to the party’s nominating convention in April. They, in turn, will determine which U.S. Senate candidates will be on the June primary ballot, if any. Hatch needs above 60% of the delegates’ votes, otherwise he faces the indignity of a primary. If he doesn’t get above 40%, though, it’s Auld Lang Syne dear socialist senator.
This process, in 2010, knee-capped then Senator Bob Bennett, so they’ve had some practice. He didn’t even get on the ballot despite his ACU lifetime rating of 83.3 after 16 years in. But to the Tea Party types who rooled, Bennett failed them on health care and the bank bailout. The inexpressibly loony Sen. Mike Lee won Bennett’s seat in November 2010, and now holds a one year ACU grade of . . . you guessed it, 100%.
Two candidates are considered favorites against Hatch tomorrow night. Both the Utah Tea Party, allied with D.C.’s Tea Party FreedomWorks, and Senator Hatch’s campaign have been recruiting thousands to attend tomorrow’s caucuses to stand as delegates, Hatch claims 5,000 recruits, Tea Partiers somewhat less. Tomorrow should be interesting if you like WWF bouts; the caucus that unseated Bennett were raucous, at best.
One of the two candidates considered a real threat to Senator Hatch is Chris Herrod, 46, and a state Representative. At his campaign netsite he supports himself with extravagance, trying to hit every Tea Party meme in a rush:
See?
Here is a selection of his fact-free views from his campaign netsite:
. Energy Independence
Drill here! Drill now!
The USA has enough oil, coal and natural gas to run our economy for centuries. We have safe nuclear power technology. Cooperative research between US companies and universities is improving solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.
. Education Reform
Get rid of the Department of Education.
America has over 50,000,000 school-age children; no rule made in Washington will fit all of them. We need to take education control away from politicians and bureaucrats and unions and put it back in the hands of the people who know it best – parents! As a teacher, I know how much individuals differ, but I’ve never known what my students need better than their parents knew.
Educating our children is not an enumerated power of Congress. Reagan wanted to get rid of the Department of Education.
. Healthcare Reform
Socialized Medicine has failed everywhere it’s been tried.
My wife literally bears the scars of the Soviet Union’s healthcare system. The Internet has thousands of pages of complaints about Europe’s nationalized medicine. The waste, fraud and abuse we know is now happening in US government-run healthcare costs taxpayers billions of dollars annually.
. Tax Reform
The government will never spend your money as wisely as you spend it.
Reducing taxes means more money for you! Reducing taxes also means increased revenue for government – that’s a fact of history, look it up! We need to force the government to stop stealing your money.
Corporations don’t pay taxes; they don’t pay for anything, their customers (you!) pay for it. Let’s end corporate income taxes so that money goes to stockholders and employees (you!). You spend your life accumulating wealth that you want to pass on to your children and your community. Let’s end the death tax that takes the money you’ve spent your life accumulating and put you back in charge of your estate.
US tax policy should be this simple: Collect what we need to pay for what we must do and leave the rest with the people who earned it.
I love the “Reducing taxes also means increased revenue for government – that’s a fact of history, look it up!” WOW. “look it up,” indeed, do so.
If you want to see how the Tea Party is shaping up these days, watch for Thursday’s Utah caucus results. Keep your eyes peeled on the “Exit” door.
