Orrin Hatch
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Contents |
Personal
- Born: March 22, 1934
- Birthplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Wife: Elaine Hansen
- Children: 6
Political
- Senator, Utah (1976 - )
- Candidate for Republican nomination of President of the United States, 2000
- Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee (2001; 2003-2004)
- Member, Senate Committee on Finance
- Member, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
- Member, Committee on Indian Affairs
- Member, Special Committee on Aging
- Member, Joint Economic Committee
- Board of Directors, Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
On The Issues
- Abortion
- Pro-Life
- Supports stem cell research
- Supports banning partial birth abortions
- Budget & Economy
- Supports higher spending for defense, education, research, and police
- Supports balancing the budget, but believes spending should get high priority
- Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment requiring a balanced budget
- Civil Rights
- Founding Fathers wanted to avoid a "national church", not the Ten Commandments
- Supports Constitutional Amendments supporting school prayer
- Believes homosexuality is contrary to the Bible, but opposes intolerance
- "Filth" should not be banned, but youth access to it should
- Freedom of Speech does not include flag burning
- Supports a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting flag burning
- Supports a Constitutional Amendment banning benefits for same-gender couples
- Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation
- Opposes Equality of marriage rights
- Opposes prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation
- Education
- More vouchers and charter schools
- Voted NO on funding smaller classes instead of private tutors
- Voted YES on education savings accounts
- Voted YES on school vouchers in Washington, DC
- Voted YES on requiring schools to allow voluntary prayer
- Voted NO on national education standards
Biography
Orrin Hatch was elected to the US Senate in 1976. An extremely hard-right conservative upon arrival in Washington, Hatch slightly mellowed over the years, even co-sponsoring AIDS legislation in 1988 with Edward M. Kennedy, whom he became somewhat friendly to. All that changed when George W. Bush took over the White House. As head of the Senate Judiciary Committee for most of Bush's first term, Hatch had to repeatedly push controversial legislation and nominees through the chamber, and stopped at nothing, including accusing Senate Dems of racism/sexism and staging an all-night session to try to break up a filibuster. However, the far-right wing of the Republican Party, angry that he has not been able to push more nominees through and upset at his offering a less sweeping, more passable version of the Federal Marriage Amendment and at his role in allowing some investigation of the GOP's culpability in the "Memogate" scandal of 2002-2003, have increasingly attacked him as liberal.
Fun Facts!
- Can't seem to shake relationship with troublemaking friend Monzer Hourani, whose exploits have embroiled Hatch in both S&L Bailout issues and the BCCI scandal. On the upside, Hourani bought 1,200 copies of Hatch's CD of original patriotic compositions, though he did it through his company, Medistar, whose biggest customer is FBI target HealthSouth, on whose behalf Hatch intervened (at Hourani's request) with Medicare over the issue of reimbursements. [1]
- Orrin Hatch's legislative views on technology were discussed in a chapter titled "What Orrin Understands" in Lawrence Lessig's 2001 book The Future of Ideas (ISBN 0-375-50578-4).
- Hatch claimed that fired US Attorney Carol Lam was 1) just a law professor with 2) no prosecutorial assistance, 3) appointed by President Clinton, because 4) she was Bill's former campaign manager in Southern California. But every one of those claims was false. (Source: Creating their own reality)
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