Today is Orrin Hatch's birthday. If still alive, he would turn 90 today. As luck would have it, one of No Pasarán's most veteran readers, an ex-DC lobbyist named Fred from the Beehive State, met his senator back in the day and, as we discussed France's president, he shares the following memories of the Utah politician. (Thanks for hatchin' an Instalink, Sarah…)
FYI, I've always thought of Macron as a lightweight, I do not follow him (at all) but I presume he is now severely afflicted with Hatch Syndrome. I named this after Utah's Senator Hatch. I remember when he was first elected, [when] he first got to DC, he was a good senator, voting and talking pretty much the "right" way. As it happened, I dealt with him (a tiny bit) when I was tangentially involved with lobbying Congress in the late 1990s. I noticed a few things. He had a very competent staff; they got things done. He was extremely self-important. He seemed to think he was always the smartest person in the room. He was very "tactful" in his language, always acting like he supported our position … However, there was something wrong, I surmised, because he used good words, but it seemed he did not really know what he was talking about. I ultimately came to the conclusion that he had spent 20+ years surrounded by yes-men. "That is a good idea, Senator." "Brilliant, Senator." "Right, good thing to do, Senator." He likely had not been told he was wrong ... well, since the 1970s?? It creates, to over-state the case a tad, it creates an idiot. Hatch was not stupid. He still voted generally the "right" way, but (for example) then he rammed through the Disney-pushed extension of copyright law (we cannot let Steamboat Willie just fall into the public domain now, can we?). The result was he thought he was important enough (or something) and he ran for president. Talk about a joke, I mean, he might have made a better president than W turned out to be, but come on, my cat would have been better (I should say your cat, as I do not have a cat). Arrogant, self-important, all the worst case scenarios you can think of. They are all that way. Sorry this is so long, but two more things. I contend that it is Hatch Syndrome that has Joe Biden, likely the stupidest president since, well, ever, challenging ordinary Americans to IQ tests. He would get walloped by at least 75% of the population, but he has no clue. (Oh, and this was true before senility set in.) Also, I cannot really blame any of them for being this way. The entire Senate, and maybe most of the House, is populated by people who are this way, but what would you expect? How would you hold up to decades of nothing but sycophantic affirmation? It seems to me that 20+ years of that would turn anyone into a Hatch Syndrome victim.[Granted, I may not blame them, but I do resent the fact that I constantly get victimized by them.]
Many years later, Fred had another Hatch-and/or-his-staff encounter. (Incidentally, I once took the same underground tram between the Senate and the Capitol once, in the 1980s; I was seated in the same tiny carriage as Ted Kennedy and another man (perhaps Orrin Hatch?); all I had on me was one of those booklets with a dozen detachable DC postcards — I asked Teddy for an autograph — he grabbed my booklet and quickly signed one of the cards (at random); it turned out to be the one displaying the White House…)
Sorry, if you are still reading, I have another Hatch story. I went to DC maybe in the early 00s with a couple of kids [from] Jr. High I guess. Someone arranged a tour of the Capitol through Hatch's office. We go into the Senate Office Building and then downstairs to the little tram that runs over to the Capitol. I happened to be in the car with one of the staffers guiding the tour. We get to talking and he says something like "These tours are usually guided by unpaid staff, but I'm paid staff, Senator Hatch has plenty of staff." "Why does he have plenty of staff?" I ask. "Well, he got the extra staff when he was chair of the Judiciary Committee. He's no longer chair, but he got to keep the staff." The country's in the very best of hands.
I remember him on tv after Reagan’s Inauguration saying how they were going to get rid of the department of Education….and look where we are 40 years later.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Does the Senate make them that way or does it simply attract them. As an interesting test case consider Michael Bennet. I knew him in his pre-Senate days and while I didn't like him, I never questioned his intelligence. He does have an affinity for yes-men which the Senate allows him to indulge. Some of his public actions would seem to indicate a deterioration.
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