Clarence ThomasSALT LAKE CITY — Orrin G. Hatch, the longest-serving Republican senator in history and a fixture in Utah politics for more than four decades, has died at age 88.
“To serve with Orrin, as I did for over three decades, was to see — and appreciate — both,” Biden said in a statement. “I saw that energetic, sharp-elbowed Orrin in the many battles we had over tax policy, the right of workers to join a union, and many others." Former Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa issued a statement recalling Hatch's help in securing conservative support for the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, which Hatch would later rank among his most important accomplishments.
While unquestionably conservative, Hatch sometimes differed with conservative colleagues — including then-President George W. Bush when Hatch pushed for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. “Orrin’s decades of leadership drove an unending catalog of major legislative accomplishments and landmark confirmations,” McConnell said in a statement. “He entered the Senate as a young principled conservative in the 1970s when the modern conservative movement was in its infancy. He held to his principles his whole career.”
In 2000, Hatch sought the Republican presidential nomination, saying he had more experience in Washington than his opponents and could work with Democrats. Hatch acknowledged winning would be a long shot, and withdrew from the race after getting only 1% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses. He endorsed George W. Bush.
Bet he wishes he played Doom now.
Thought and prayer