Since I have been wearing the Dan Liljenquist tee shirt and assisting at some of his events, people have been coming up to me and sharing with me their stories, letters and experiences relating to the Hatch vs. Liljenquist choice. I have decided to post them here for others to read. My thanks to Gordon S. Jones of Draper, Utah for sharing this letter from "Aunt Bethie" and his response to her niece. The original letter is long, over seven pages, so I have selected some excerpts. If you would like a copy of the entire letter, please email me at Kristenkprice@gmail.com and I will forward it to you.
"The following letter was sent to a neighbor of mine. It is
from an aunt to her niece, explaining her support for Senator Hatch. My
neighbor, knowing of my experience in Washington Utah
Having prepared this response to my neighbor, it occurred to
me that it might provide a general statement that would be helpful to others.
It is in that spirit that I pass it along.
Aunt Bethie's remarks are in Roman type. Mine are in italics.
---Dear Niece,
Hatch’s record of
endorsing liberal incumbents and trashing conservative challengers is long and
consistent. He did it with Olympia Indiana
---
---
I have had many conversations with him and his staff over
the years. I have heard the back story of many of his votes that
people find controversial, and I have been tutored in the complicated process
that occurs back in Washington
I have had thousands
of conversations with Hatch and his staff over the years on matters of politics
and policy. I do have to say that his staff never tried to give me “back-story”
explanations of his votes for the Department of Education, NCLB, Medicare Part
D, CHIP, TARP, of his support for taxpayer funding for embryonic stem cell
research, his vote to make possession of firearms illegal using the Commerce
Clause arguments that Obama is using today to defend the Individual Mandate in
Health Care. They did not bother to give me that “back story” because they knew
that I knew at least as much about how the Senate operates as they do, and they
knew that I would not be as easily “tutored” as Aunt Bethie.
Senator Hatch will be the chairman of the Finance Committee
if he wins and if we take back the Senate, and if we don't, then he will be the
ranking minority member of that committee, which is powerful in and of itself.
The legislation to defund or repeal Obama Care will come out of that
committee....a balanced budget proposal will come out of that committee, just
to name two of the more pressing issues. Why on earth
would we kick out someone poised to lead that committee?!! For the next 6
years [we] will have another junior senator, who will be
stuck onto some minor committee, and it will take him years to work his way
even onto the Finance Committee, and more years to have any chance of becoming
Chairman. It's ludicrous.
What is ludicrous is
to think that a single Senator is all that important. If Hatch goes down, the
worst we will get is Mike Crapo at Finance, a much more reliable conservative
(for example Mike Crapo never proposed a health care bill with an Individual
Mandate in it, as Hatch did). There has been only one Indispensable Man in our
history, and Orrin Hatch is no George Washington.
---
Senator Hatch has been there a long time, it's true, but how
long is too long? (36 years is too
long!) He is consistently rated in the highest percentile by conservative
watch dog group...
(I do some of those
ratings, and I know exactly how reliable they are, and what they are used for.
They are very good at distinguishing between Rs and Ds, but not so good at
distinguishing between moderates and conservatives. Besides which, Hatch’s
record is not all that good. On the ACU
Index, for example, his Lifetime rating is only in the high 80s, which puts him
among the lowest Republicans. These last two years, since Bennett’s travails,
he has repented and gotten 100%, but is this a deathbed conversion?)
---
So, to sum up....I ask people who have a problem with some
of Senator Hatch's votes over the years....or the fact that he has served in
the Senate for many years......FORG ET
THAT, and ask yourself. WHO HAS THE BEST CHANCE TO BRING ABOUT THE
DRASTI C CHANGES THAT MUST HAPPEN
TO SAVE OUR COUNTRY......HATCH OR LILENQUIST? WHO HAS THE
POWER, THE CLOUT, THE INFLUENCE, THE SENIORITY?
So, to sum up, I ask
people to look at the record of Orrin Hatch for the last 18 years, and compare
it with (a) what he did in the first 18 or (b) Dan Liljenquist’s record in
three years in the State Legislature (which is three years more experience in
government than Hatch had when he was elected—or Mike Lee for that matter).
Look at the record,
and forget the incantations of the magic words of Seniority, Clout, Influence,
Power, What the Senator can do for Utah
My state delegate
supported Hatch “because he helped us get the TRAX line here in Draper.” Well,
Hatch can only get TRAX money for Draper because he agrees to support taxpayer
money for the Big Dig in Boston, for the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska, for the
Murtha Airport in New York, and an Interstate Highway in Hawaii! Hatch can do
nothing “for” us without doing it “to” someone else. It is this system of
mutual back-scratching that has gotten us into the fiscal mess we are in.
Forget these
incantations of power recited by the Hatch campaign, and apparently so
persuasive to Aunt Bethie and others. Vote for the man who will make a
difference, who has made a difference."
It’s Time! (For Dan)
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