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You'll want to see Orrin Hatch's tribute to Kennedy. IT'S AMAZING.
Dick Day (who is that guy BTW? :) ) alerted me yesterday to an MSNBC link glitch; hope it works this time (for this clip).
The stuff about how how Ted would have just called his friend Orrin and got something done on Health Care? It might not be true in this case (Ted rightly rejected a bi-partisan strategy when Bill and Hillary tried Health Care), but calling on Orrin certainly would have occurred to Ted. There's a lot in here (ever hear about the song that Orrin wrote for his friends Ted and Vicki, the one from Oceans Twelve?), and it's worth your time.
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AND SPECIAL BONUS!!! What I tried to post yesterday but link was busted, Keith's excellent two-day-old Worst Person in the World!
The stuff about how how Ted would have just called his friend Orrin and got something done on Health Care? It might not be true in this case (Ted rightly rejected a bi-partisan strategy when Bill and Hillary tried Health Care), but calling on Orrin certainly would have occurred to Ted. There's a lot in here (ever hear about the song that Orrin wrote for his friends Ted and Vicki, the one from Oceans Twelve?), and it's worth your time.
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AND SPECIAL BONUS!!! What I tried to post yesterday but link was busted, Keith's excellent two-day-old Worst Person in the World!
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Good, I am glad to reposted the link.
You already know, my links screw up all the time.
hahahah
I still ask in chat if they see what I see on my screen.
August 29, 2009 8:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
I watched Hatch before this in an interview. Smarmy little man. His new mantra is (as he noted) that, 'if Ted Kennedy were alive and involved, we could achieve bipartisan healthcare legislation, but now it's doubtful.'
This will be the Repubs new mantra and it serves their two main goals - to denigrate Obama's abilities and to bury HCR along with Senator Kennedy.
What's so infuriating, and only serves to illuminate his hypocrisy - is that for over twenty years Kennedy did work for and attempt to achieve HCR reform legislation - and his buddy Hatch was one of the main obstacles.
As far as Hatch's 'moving' talk at the memorial - listen very carefully to the phrasing and how truly passive aggressive it is - making several references to Kennedy's smoking, drinking, etc. while Hatch is the 'good, non-smoking, non-drinking Mormon boy from a modest family'.
Talk is cheap - and so is Hatch's character.
August 29, 2009 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Smarmy as a descriptor is tough to disagree with!
That the two of them did have some kind of a relationship is tough to question given all the evidence.
From Wiki: "After campaigning as the top surrogate for Ronald Reagan in the presidential campaign in 1980, Hatch was catapulted to the chairmanship of the Labor and Human Resources Committee when the Senate turned Republican on Reagan's coattails. Liberals feared what might happen, since the committee's jurisdiction covered labor, education and health. But while the Republicans held a majority on the committee, that majority included maverick Sen. Lowell Weicker, (R-CT), who would frequently vote with the Democrats. Unable to force legislation, Hatch developed a policy of frequent consultations with Ranking Democrat Edward Kennedy, and the committee became a hotbed of health legislation and reform on other issues. During this period Hatch won cooperation from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), on "orphan drug" legislation, and with Rep. Al Gore (D-TN), on organ transplant legislation. Hatch continued and expanded the anti-smoking work of Sen. Moss, expanding the warning labels on cigarette packages to four more-specific, rotating warnings. Hatch wrote and passed the Home Health Care Act, authorizing Medicare funds to provide health care to people in their homes rather than at hospitals, saving significantly on individual actions and expanding the reach of federal health care assistance. Hatch's collaborations with Kennedy would continue into the Clinton administration, with the two teaming up to push the State Children's Health Insurance Program into law in 1997." The references to Vicki and Eunice Shriver are too frequent and detailed to have likely been invented. They hugged one another on the Senate floor not to long ago apparently. Hatch wrote another song for him recently. Hatch comes from one of the most conservative places anywhere and he has to say all sorts of cutting things to keep those people happy; I agree that some of what he said at the memorial was maybe excessive. But he cut up on John McCain as well. There is a story that Hatch helped Kennedy understand that his drinking was out of hand. Oh, Hatch got Strom Thurmond to support Americans with Disabilities Act, quipping that if Strom really knew what was really in the bill he's have a heart attack.
They used one another. Each realized that he could be more powerful if he made good use of the other. And I think Hatch enjoyed that.
August 29, 2009 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
These were relatively 'safe' issues for Hatch.
If you look at his contributors, the largest are the healthcare entities (Blue Cross, et al.) and their ilk.
He never subscribed or supported Kennedy's overall healthcare reform. And made no secret of it. Yet, now at his passing,he uses his 'dear friend's' passing as the reason there will no bipartisan achievements or legislation as Ted wished. It's beyond repulsive.
August 29, 2009 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
So you and aren't fighting, Aunt Sam, we are moderately disagreeing, right?
1. I think if a significant Health Care bill is signed, Hatch will be very glad for his friend's legacy, even if he votes against it. I bet he won't filibuster it, though. He is a six-term Senator last elected in 2006 and he doesn't need to prove himself to anybody; his seat is safe and he's careful to put in all the zingers that the base likes.
2. You don't buy that and I understand and you may well be right.
August 29, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
OR, of course we're not 'fighting' - I respect and always value your input.
I just believe you are attributing Hatch with more character and positive traits than he possesses. My stance on Hatch (which in that interview I referenced he only substantiated) is that there is nothing and no one he would not 'throw under the bus' if it served his purpose.
He does not acknowledge nor 'works' for the greater good of the majority of Americans - much less has any empathy for those not 'of his beliefs and lifestyle'.
That said (ad nauseum by me), I also want to reiterate how much I enjoy/value your posts, comments and participation here. And I thank you.
Peace and blessings.
August 29, 2009 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Again, you may well be right and I may not. And I'm not patronizing, you may well have it right.
Thank you so much for your really kind words, and likewise, Aunt Sam.
August 29, 2009 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
OR, of course we're not 'fighting' - I respect and always value your input.
I just believe you are attributing Hatch with more character and positive traits than he possesses. My stance on Hatch (which in that interview I referenced he only substantiated) is that there is nothing and no one he would not 'throw under the bus' if it served his purpose.
He does not acknowledge nor 'works' for the greater good of the majority of Americans - much less has any empathy for those not 'of his beliefs and lifestyle'.
That said (ad nauseum by me), I also want to reiterate how much I enjoy/value your posts, comments and participation here. And I thank you.
Peace and blessings.
August 29, 2009 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
The old liar is trying to rewrite history at the memorial...Shameless..
There is a bill out of the Senate --it is the Kennedy Bill..So much BS...He wanted the PUBLIC OPTION>....Do not believe the pundits and lying heads pushing the crap from the repub obstructionists and attempted revisionists!
August 29, 2009 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I see it as more multi-dimensional. But there is no doubt that Hatch is a strong conservative. Still, not a rejectionist curmudgeon like say, Coburn, Imhofe, or DeMint. See my reply above to Aunt Sam. And I think he is proud of his ability to be bipartisan, while publicly cussing out Dems and good for nothings.
There's this from 1997 which you should see, so the "odd couple" story isn't new. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/14/us/hatch-joins-kennedy-to-back-a-health-program.html
It may have been a bit conflated lately, of course.
August 29, 2009 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey OT. I'm wondering about this whole question of what Hatch 'should' do regarding the HCR vote. The whole issue doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Maybe on one level he SHOULD vote to pass HCR (or at least for cloture), in the sense that HCR is objectively a good thing for the country.
But then he 'should' do that irrespective of his relationship with Kennedy.
But should he vote for it insofar as it is (a) something the two of them may disagree about, but (b) Kennedy really wanted to pass? That to me sounds insane. If Hatch had died earlier this decade, should Kennedy have, as a tribute, changed his vote for the Patriot act? for the tax cuts? For the Iraq war? Of course not.
I'm all for tugging on Hatch's heartstrings if it will do anything to change his vote. But, frankly, I won't think any worse of him if he votes his political convictions (or lack of them, as the case may be). Not that I think particularly highly of him. Don't get me wrong, I just don't see the basis for a rational argument about how Hatch should change his vote as a function of Kennedy's death.
August 29, 2009 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hi Obey!
The issue for me is his call out that because of Kennedy's passing, there will now not be a bi-partisan working together. (As if!) I reiterate, with this new mantra he is asserting that Pres. Obama nor anyone (Dems, et al. of course) is capable and that Teddy's passing is the reason there will be no HCR. It is reprehensible to me that he uses his 'good friends' passing in this manner and that he totally ignores the fact that for over twenty years Teddy couldn't get Hatch on board either!
It's his hypocrisy and spewing this - TK isn't even buried yet! I could hope but in reality not expect him to change - but I do expect respect and a modicum of common decency from anyone as they supposedly pay homage to their 'dear friend'.
August 29, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hi Sam! Yeah, I now see where you're coming from. In the above, I didn't really have your comments in mind, by the by. Just some exhortations I've seen floating around.
Hatch is scum. I really don't see why people expected better of him. And I hold out no hope that his friendship with Kennedy will do anything to change his standard mo. But he can go ahead and 'use' the passing of his friend to demonize the administration all he wants. At this point, the polarization can't really get worse. The dems are already 'nazi-commies' or whatever. What's this last volley going to change? Nothing.
August 29, 2009 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for commenting here, Obey!
I don't see Hatch changing his vote; he has already made that clear enough by saying that if only his friend Teddy were here he might be able to have a bill he could vote on. This is at odds with Teddy's own advice to Clintons in 1993 I believe it was that Dems then should go it alone on Health Care since it just isn't the kind of issue that lends itself to bipartishanship (and boy are we seeing that now!). So whether Ted is manipulating or romanticizing, we are not getting the real truth from him begins Ted didn't believe Repubs could go far enough in a bill to make it worth passing; at least that's what he thought some years ago.
August 29, 2009 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
One of Kennedy's kids or maybe his wife or maybe Maria Shriver should call Hatch up and say, Hey Orrin, do it for Teddy, o.k.? Record the conversation. I'd like to hear it.
August 29, 2009 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's not lose sight of the fact that the Kennedy family -- in fact, Ted and Vicki, asked Orrin Hatch to speak at the wake. That suggests that there really was a relationship there, and an impartial observer would have been able to see genuine affection and respect (and maybe a bit of envy) in Sen Hatch's comments about his friend.
While I greatly respect several of those commenting above, I think they seem to miss the spirit with which Sen. Kennedy approached his ideological opponents. Can't recall Pres. Obama's exact words, but I truly wish it were possible to go back to a time when it was possible to disagree with someone without questioning their patriotism.
It seems to me that someone who would support and work with Kennedy on the S-Chip legislation has some of the right instincts and priorities. Why not build on that ?
August 30, 2009 2:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
We can't do it ourselves, unfortunately. When Charles Grassley is supposed to be negotiating an HCR bill and he is out on he hustings handing out free Glenn Beck books of hatred, one wonders if this is bygone era. Who among them has denounced the California Congressman who desecrated his oath of office by praising the portly curmudgeon who bragged about being a right wing terrorist?
August 30, 2009 9:34 PM | Reply | Permalink