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Presidential Pardons are the responsibility of the President (which is apparently Orrin Hatch in his own mind). Nowhere could I find anything even remotely related to pardons in the official job description of the Senate. I enjoyed a lengthy and well written summary of the situation from Lizzen and so my list of grievances with Senator Hatch is now longer than it was before. I have long argued that the Senior Senator from Utah is not much of a Utah citizen and not much of a conservative representative from our conservative state. Now I have concluded that he is not much of a senator since he seems to think that 32 years of living near 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. qualifies him to tell the President who should be getting a Presidential Pardon.
I wish my fellow Utahns would help him to no longer be a Senator for Utah – I’m sure if we did he would be relieved of the burden of pretending to be conservative and I’d bet that he would also quit pretending to be from Utah if he were no longer "representing" the state in his adopted hometown.
8 replies on “All Hail President Hatch”
Hatch: drug user = bad, drug pusher = OK. But he does have a point on the gun toting gangsta.
Anyone is free to lobby for a presidential pardon or commutation of a sentence (which is not the same thing as a pardon). Hatch’s lobbying of the administration does not make him a presidential wannabe (although, he has previously run for the job). But it is completely understandable if Utahns think that this lobbying effort demonstrates horrible judgment on the part of Utah’s senior senator.
Unfortunately, I doubt this kind of thing will even raise a blip on the radar of most of the people that will vote when Hatch runs for re-election.
Please don’t rain on my parade 😉 I know the seat is his as long as he puts his name on the ballot, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
A good clarification about the commutation, Reach Upward. For me, the thing that chapped my hide was that he “spoke to the appropriate people” at the U.S. Department of Justice. I’m sure this may just be an issue of semantics, but to me that phrase perfectly illustrates the sense of entitlement a person in his “esteemed position” wields against us lesser mortals.
Thanks for the link, David.
I would say that air of entitlement is a major part of the reason that I don’t view him as a decent representative. He thinks its his seat not a seat for the people of Utah.
You’re completely correct on the “air of entitlement” thing. But let’s also realize that pretty much every U.S. Senator shares this same air and engages in similar kinds of activities. So do many of our representatives, for that matter. Hatch is a symptom of a systemic problem.
You’re absolutely right Reach, this is a systemic problem. I think the problem starts with too many voters who think it’s more important to pick the right president than it is to hold their representative accountable for their actions.
Although it wouldn’t do much for senators, I’ll bet that reducing congressional district size to 30,000 citizens would go a long way toward curbing this air of elitism among representatives.
I’m sure you’re right. I also believe that making that change only in the House would be a good start. Also, if the House and the Senate were obviously different (unlike now when the length of their terms seems like the only difference most of the time) we might see some differences in how they operate.