 |
| Retiring Republican Senator Orrin Hatch |
From a purely objective standpoint, the former-boxer-turned lawyer-turned published songwriter turned-career politician's timing couldn't be better.
Democrats Ralph Northam and Phil Murphy were elected governor in Virginia, and New Jersey in November.
Democrat Doug Jones was just sworn in for a six-year senate term after recently winning a tight race in the reliably-Republican state of Alabama.
And after a controversial race to decide control of the Virginia House of Delegates, Republican David Yancey was just declared the winner over Democratic candidate Shelly Simonds - leaving the chamber with a slim 51-49 Republican majority.
But remember, Republicans controlled the 100-member VA House of Delegates with 66 seats (a healthy 2/3 majority) before the recent election - and after a 11,607-vote tie was declared, Yancey only won the election after his name was literally picked out of a bowl to decide the winner.
So just looking at the results of those four widely-watched races, all of which have national political implications, my sense is that the 84-year-old Hatch read the writing on the wall on how mainstream American voters are feeling about the Republican Party and their erratic POTUS.
After 40-plus years in the Senate, it's also fairly reasonable to speculate that Hatch has no desire to further soil his reputation by eventually being forced into the awkward position of potentially having to defend Donald Trump from impeachment charges related to the mounting evidence that he colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election if Democrats take back the House and Senate in November.
 |
| When bad haircuts are the least of our worries |
The tweet in which he childishly taunted North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un about who had the bigger nuclear button prompted two concerned Democratic lawmakers to propose legislation that would limit Trump's authority to independently order a nuclear launch without prior Congressional approval.
So given all of that, I'm guessing Orrin Hatch simply decided that enough was enough, and let's be honest - he has to be aware that Trump's impeachment is no longer just wishful thinking.
A Democratic-controlled Congress would almost surely take up impeachment hearings against Trump; a possibility that American University history professor Allan Lichtman says is very real.
Take a few minutes to listen to his thoughts about a Trump impeachment from his CBS interview.
Professor Lichtman has correctly picked almost every winning presidential candidate since 1984, and was one of the few to go on record and predict Trump's victory two months before the 2016 election - and well before former FBI Director James Comey decided to re-open an already closed investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails days before Americans headed to the polls.
Did you read Annie Karni's Politico article about Yale University professor Brandy X. Lee being invited to Capitol Hill for two days in December to brief a group of Democratic lawmakers (and one Republican Senator) on Trump's mental fitness to serve in office?
As Dr. Lee told Politico, "We feel that the rush of tweeting is an indication of his falling apart under stress. Trump is going to get worse and will become uncontainable with the pressures of the presidency."
 |
| Trump discusses the GOP tax bill via video while he's only 50-feet away in the Oval Office - WTF? |
Not only did he announce his intent to sue Henry Holt & co., the publishers of journalist Michael Wolff's new book "Fire and Fury" which chronicles Trump's election and first chaotic year in the White House (in which Steve Bannon called Don. Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer "treasonous").
He announced he's allowing offshore drilling off any coastal area in the U.S.
He's lighting up social media today after White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders coyly announced a "message from a special guest" before Trump's head appeared on two video monitors on either side of her podium to speak live about the hugely-unpopular Republican tax bill.
Which he insisted is "already delivering major economic gains" despite the nation-wide confusion over how newly-imposed limitations on federal deductions for state and local taxes will impact American homeowners and the fact that relatively few Americans have actually filed their taxes yet.
Why Trump chose to appear via video when he was 50-feet away in the Oval Office is anyone's best guest and has led to some pretty amusing speculation on social media.
One of my personal favorites: The Twitter account for Full Frontal, Samantha Bee's hysterical political satire show on TBS, asked followers to send in suggestions on why Trump elected to appear at the press conference via video instead of just walking down the hall.
Oh and he also banned White House staff and guests from using their personal cell phones - almost forgot to mention that one.
 |
| Sen. Ted Kennedy confers with Sen. Orrin Hatch in far less politically-partisan times |
As he often famously did with former Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy.
Not that Hatch has actually done a whole lot of that bipartisan stuff lately - as the current chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Hatch has been pretty preoccupied in recent weeks.
He's been busy behind the scenes helping lobbyists, lawyers for various special interests and other Republican politicians stuff as much pork as possible into the recently-passed Republican tax bill to appease the billionaire Republican donor base, corporations and the 1% of Americans who are already butt-ass rich score tax cuts they don't need.
And that seems to be the legacy the seven-term senator (the longest-serving in U.S. history) seems content to end his career on.
Which is kind of sad considering that over the course of his career, he's actually been fairly progressive on some issues despite being a respected conservative.
He supported legislation legalizing unions between same-sex couples and publicly backed the right for "gay people [to have] the same rights as married people" even though he personally believes marriage is an act between a man and woman.
 |
| Image from the CHIP landing page on Medicaid.gov |
As Martin Pengelly wrote in an article for The Guardian, CHIP covers about 9 million American children and 370,000 pregnant women - it costs U.S. taxpayers about $15 billion a year.
But Republicans essentially defunded the program over their petty and vindictive attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and strip healthcare from millions of Americans.
Hatch had the temerity to stand on the floor of the Senate and insist, "Nobody believes in the CHIP program more than I...but the reason CHIP's having trouble is because we don't have money anymore. But to just add more and more spending and more and more spending...I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won't help themselves -won't lift a finger - and expect the federal government to do everything."
Remember folks, he's talking about children and pregnant women.
Of course Hatch helped draft and pass the gargantuan $1.5 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the wealthiest Americans.
 |
| Orrin Hatch (right) next to smirking tax cut fetishist Speaker Paul Ryan as Mitch McConnell gloats |
I know I'm not the only tax-paying American who finds it disgraceful that Republicans would eliminate a program that provides health insurance for children that costs $15 billion a year to finance tax relief for the wealthiest Americans.
Check out the widely-circulated Salt Lake Tribune op-ed in published on Christmas Day titled, "Why Orrin Hatch Is the Utahn of the Year"
Journalists from his home state criticized Hatch for among other things, "His utter lack of integrity that rises from his unquenchable thirst for power."
As the Salt Lake Tribune op-ed opines, Trump did Hatch a big favor by using his authority to revoke the national monument status of Utah's Bears Ears and Staircase-Escalante national parks in order to open up thousands of acres of pristine natural lands to private corporations to pillage it for minerals, oil, natural gas and lumber.
In turn, Hatch helped Trump by announcing that he's leaving the senate after helping to pass a massive tax bill that will ensure that both men avoid millions in federal taxes - just in time for retirement.
Only time will tell how history views Hatch's years in the senate, but there's little doubt that he's leaving on a wave of enlightened self-interest.
Saying goodbye to Capitol Hill at a divisive time when principled leadership is needed most, and abandoning his own commitment to make sure the federal government helps America's most vulnerable children get the healthcare they need.
Maybe Orrin Hatch just grew tired and cynical in the age of Trump - and perhaps in the end, his wallet was simply more important than the lofty principles he once espoused.
Utahn of the year indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment