Keywords For Orrin Hatch: Hypocrisy, Lies, National Security, Stupidity, Taxpayers' Money

(Lies, Hypocrisy, Taxpayers' Money) 

FACT: Hatch was trashing Democrats for a "systematic and calculated effort to confirm the absolute minimum number" of George W. Bush's judicial nominees. "Contrary to the widely held belief," he whined, "the Republicans did not play such games when Bill Clinton was president." Back in the world of reality, the Washington Post had this to say of Hatch's claim: "During Mr. Hatch's tenure as committee chairman, the average time between a judicial nomination and final Senate action grew substantially, with individual nominees sitting around for outrageously long periods of time - sometimes years. In 1999, Mr. Hatch went so far as to freeze consideration of all nominees for several months in an effort to force Mr. Clinton to nominate a conservative lawyer favored by Mr. Hatch for a district judgeship in Utah. Before Mr. Hatch complains too loudly about the 28 nominees the Senate confirmed this year, moreover, he should recall that in 1996, the Senate confirmed only 17." 

(National Security, Stupidity) 

FACT: When Intelligence Committee member Senator John Edwards was interviewed on television shortly after September 11, he quite rightly refused to divulge any classified information - the same position we have seen taken by Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, and General Hugh Shelton. Unfortunately Hatch, who was suffering from diarrhea of the mouth, blabbed sensitive information on television on September 11. Hatch revealed everything he knew about telephone conversations that had been intercepted between groups linked to Bin Laden. When pressed on the matter, he said that he got the info from high-level intelligence sources - who then had to come out the next day and admit that it was true.