There's been a rumor floating around at the Republican grass-roots (be sure to read the excellent comments) that Senator-for-Life Orrin Hatch may face a serious challenge this year, in his bid for re-election to the US Senate. He's been regularly criticized by local Republican insiders for various forms of silliness, such as his close personal association with Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, his truly weird songwriting aspirations, and his lapdog support for the Washington neonon agenda. And of course, there was his strange idea about randomly destroying people's computers -- a "Dr Evil" touch -- through government-implanted viruses. Adding insult to injury, Senator Hatch would appear to be a "software pirate" too, at least if you believe what this article says.
Check out what popped up on the web this morning. There's plenty of information on Rep. Urquhart on his website, and for more info, you can check out his blog.
It's my bet that Utah House Rep. Urquhart will give Senator Hatch the race of a lifetime. Perhaps it will be his "swan song," so that he can get down to songwriting full-time.
Here are Senator Hatch's own words, which may very well live to haunt him in the upcoming race: "What do you call a Senator who has served 18 years? You call him home." Hatch has warmed his current US Senate seat for twenty-nine.
Update 7/25/05 9:34 a.m. MT: Bob Bernick of The Deseret Morning News had some interesting analysis of the upcoming Senate race scenario in Friday's edition.
Phil Windley also elaborates on why Orrin Hatch is no friend to the Utah "technical community" here.
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7 comments:
Senator Hatch has his seat until he decides to let it go.
Bring 'em on!
If Senator Hatch were to leave the mother of all public trough's and head back here to the land of the sheep he could make a fortune as a coffin model...
Hatch has a lot of money, but he has become bad for Utah. He wields his (seemingly precious) seniority poorly. He might be big, but the bigger they are the harder they fall.
If I had a dog that looked like Hatch I would shave its ass and teach it to walk backwards. So what kind of coffin model would that make? What model coffins - slug in a box?
The guy hasn't done anything for Utah since he replaced Frank Moss a coons age ago. The songs he writes are down right embarrasing to the whole state.
You have a definite point there, Reach Upward.
Senator Hatch has lost his way. He simply needs to be replaced with somebody who's younger, more vigorous, and more attuned to the moral values of Utahns. He's been living in the Washington "beltway" for far too long.
Senator Hatch emerged from his last state Republican nomination six years ago with a bare 45 vote margin, thus avoiding a primary showdown with his last opponent, who wasn't even a Republican party "insider."
It's different now. This time he'll be opposed by the State Republican house majority whip, a young and vigorous Republican insider -- a guy with serious Republican "juice."
It'll be interesting to see how the delegate votes will line up after this fall's Republican Convention.
My experience in local party politics, (being a GOP party "insider" myself,) is that Orrin Hatch has serious problems with the slightly more sophisticated "State Party Delegates" who will be involved in Sen. Hatch's re-election process.
Although the regular folks still seem to fawn over him, Senator Hatch isn't very popular with the party stalwarts.
Don't get too excited about Rep. Urquhart until you look at the past history of his integrity.
He was part of the group responsible for torpedoing Initiative B.
Ask Marty Stevens about Urquhart's keeping good bills from going to the floor by promising to introduce and suppport them and then keeping them from even going to committee.
Ask who threatened to walk out of a called meeting with Marty if Urquhart was allowed to stay in the room because of that person's conviction that Urquhart has no honor.
I am no Hatch lover but don't replace him with another younger less intelligent version.
And remember that what appears on Urquhart's website is just another P.R. person's version of the man.
Marty Steven is a consummate a-hole, Dorothy.
If Marty Stevens ever had any problems with Rep. Urquhart, that automaticlly puts me on Rep. Urquhart's side.
Hatch is a senile old man, BTW, which doesn;t seem to be a problem in a state ruled by senile old (white) men.
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