A recent thread on Paul H. Dunn's Baseball Whoppers for Jesus (see:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1206609,1206609#msg-1206609) reminded me of the time when Orrin Hatch personally asked me to do what I could at intervening to stop investigative reporting being done by the "Arizona Republic" on Dunn's trail of faith-promoting, totally made-up war stories.
It also sparked recollections of other interactions I've had with Hatch over the years. A news story published during the failed presidential campaign of Mitt Romney also jogged my memory, with its report of Hatch's warning that Mitt's Mormon faith would be used against Romney in his run for the White House roses; Headlined "DNC Chief: Mormonism Off Limits," it read:
". . . Hatch, a six-term Utah Republican and a Mormon, told a group of GOP delegates: 'You watch, they’re going to throw the Mormon church at him like you can’t believe.'
"Asked to elaborate in an interview later, Hatch predicted that campaign adviser David Axelrod and White House aide David Plouffe would inject Mormonism into the campaign. . . .
“'. . . [T]here is nothing they won’t do,' he added."
("DNC Chief: Mormonism Off Limits," by Darius Dixon, in "Politico," 3 April 2010)
For Hatch's own purposes, Mormonism is sure as hell not off limits. To the contrary, there is nothing he won't do in using Mormonism to advance his personal political and religious ambitions. Based on my own experiences with him, let's take a look at Hatch's record in invoking Mormonism to further himself and his Mormon buddies, for both his own political agenda and for the institutional agenda of the Mormon Church.
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--My Personal History with Hatch
I have known Orrin Hatch for some years, going back to the late 1970s, when I got to meet and talk with him on a fairly regular basis when we both used office space in the Russell Senate Office building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Given the proximity of our workplaces, I would visit with him and we had had several conversations, both in person and occasionally by phone. At Hatch's request, I drew his caricature, along with those of members of his family, and was invited to his home for dinner in Vienna, Virginia. I have a photograph of us taken together in his Washington office--which he autographed and, among other things, referred to me as "my great Friend, Steve" and told me to "Keep it up" in my cartooning efforts, signing off with "I believe in you." Similarly, in my copy of Richard Vetterli's biography on Hatch entitled "Orrin Hatch: Challenging the Washington Establishment" (Chicago, Illinois: Regnery Gateway, 1982), Hatch wrote such things as "I'm so proud of you," "Keep up the good work" and "This Senator is constantly pulling for you," then signing off with "Orrin Hatch USS-Utah." In addition, in personal letters to me (including after I left the Mormon Church), Hatch expressed friendship and concern, as well as noting that he was praying in my behalf. He also mailed to me a copy of a CD collection of religious hymns he had personally composed and then had set to piano music.
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--Hatch's Thoughts on "Anti-Mormon" Literature--
Over time, Hatch told me some interesting things about himself, about the Mormon Church and about his plans for higher office.
One of those things had to do with his claim of having read volumes of "anti-Mormon" material without it having damaged his faith. Hatch later boasted about this in public. Another RfM poster previously noted how Hatch claimed to have read tens of thousands of pages of anti-Mormon literature:
"Today I attended a meeting for a local LDS law society where Senator Orrin Hatch spoke. The topic was supposed to be 'Ethics and the Judicial Confirmation Process,' but he ended up talking an awful lot about TSCC, how 'prejudice' against TSCC stymied his presidential bid in 2000, etc.
"Anyway, one funny thing he said was that as an undergraduate student at BYU, he determined that he would read '1,000 pages of Mormon history.' He said his history professor suggested he balance it out with 1,000 pages of 'ex-Mormon history' (not sure what he meant by that- the history of ex-Mormons or history about the church BY ex-mormons, but whatever. . .)
"The good Senator then said that he found 'ex-Mormon history soooo interesting that he not only read 1,000 pages but 85,000 (!!!) pages of it.' He said that he was not phased in his belief in the church by any of that 'garbage.'
"Come on?!? 85,000 pages?!?!?!? Has there even been that much written of 'ex-mormon history?'
"The take-away point seemed to be that people who disbelieve TSCC are just 'stupid' to be snookered by all that 'ex-Mormon' history out there, when someone as powerful as the senator failed to be convinced by it.
"Personally, unattached from politics here and focusing narrowly on his comments re TSCC, I think Mr. Hatch is full of ****, both on claiming to have read the 85,000 pages and about his inferences.
"I just thought this was eye-rolling interesting."
("Orrin Hatch has read '85,000 pages of ex-Mormon "history'[**language]," posted by "DCL" on "Recovery from Mormonism" bulletin board, 27 March 2006)
That's a great fireside story but it's not exactly what Hatch told me. As to his story of having read some 85,000 pages of "ex-Mormon" material, well, it tale seems to have blossomed like a rose to the tune of several thousand additional petals. He told me he had read only 10,000 pages of the stuff. Moreover, for the record, when Hatch made that claim in my presence, he referred to what he had supposedly read not as "ex-Mormon" history but as "anti-Mormon" history.
He confidently informed me at the time that he was familiar with "anti-Mormon" arguments and that there was no criticism of the LDS Church that he either had not heard before or could not answer. He told me, in fact, that his thorough knowledge of the "anti-Mormon" position had favorably impressed a University of Utah professor, to whom he relayed this information.
I questioned Hatch's working knowledge of evidence against the Mormon Church, informing him that there was developing, mounting and credible data, much of it only recently made available, persuasively indicating that the Book of Mormon was a piece of 19th-century fiction. I mentioned, in particular, Vernal Holley's work on the Spaulding Manuscript (which in my own studies had provided pivotal proof that Joseph Smith's production was non-historical), as well as geographical place-name similarities between supposed Book of Mormon lands and events and the topography of Great Lakes region of the United States.
Hatch did not demonstrate any knowledge of these specific counter-evidences but dismissed my arguments nonetheless, saying that his own research of Mormonism while in college had made him well aware of the critics' positions.
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--Hatch's Use of Ezra Taft Benson as a Springboard into National Public Office--
Hatch has often repeated to me over the years that what especially encouraged him to enter national politics was the strong support he received from my grandfather, Ezra Taft Benson.
My grandfather, in fact, acknowledged to me in personal correspondence that he regarded Hatch as a good man whose voice was sorely needed in the Senate and as a person who he hoped t would be in Congress for a long time to come.
Indeed, in a personal letter to me from my grandfather, dated 21-22 April 1981, Ezra Taft Benson said the following about Hatch:
“I have become acquainted with many senators in my life. I know of no one who I feel made a better record in his first term than Orrin Hatch. I . . . hope that I may be helpful to one whom I feel is a great asset to the United States Senate and should be continued in office for many years to come . . . ."
At General Conferences in Salt Lake City, I would watch Hatch smoothly working the pews in the front roped-off section where families of Church leaders were given their own special vantage point, located just below the big-chaired, plush-seating rostrum for ETB and his fellow GAs. Before the session, Hatch would go up and down the rows, shaking hands, back-slapping and grinning, scoring pious political points with the powerful and the faithful.
A different side of Hatch presented itself to me some years later. After he had addressed an opening event on Capitol Hill in D.C. for a national Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention, he and I were walking out to where he was to catch his limousine curbside ride to another function. Before getting into the limo, he half-whispered to me that his political opponents would "sell their mothers for a vote." Orrin, quite the family guy.
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--Hatch's Quest for the American Presidency and His Views on Gays--
When Hatch was running for the Republican presidential nomination several years back, I received a long distance call from him one afternoon as I was cleaning out the garage at my Arizona home. At the time, Hatch was on the stump, in the Midwest, and told me that he could use a cartoon from me supporting him in his run for the nomination. I politely sidestepped his request.
Later, when he came through Phoenix for a campaign debate and dropped by my newspaper for a visit, I provided him a copy of a cartoon I had previously done on him, which had criticized Hatch for anti-gay comments he had made in which, among other things, he had expressed public gratitude that he was not a Democrat and in which he noted that the Democratic Party was the party of the homosexuals. Hatch, in attacking gay supporters, also noted that Democrats tended to be more educated and financially well-off than Republicans. When I handed him a copy of my cartoon that took him to task for such antics, Hatch assured me that he had been misquoted. and misunderstood.
Hatch also appeared, as an invited speaker, at another national editorial cartoonist convention (this one in Orlando, Florida; we'll get to him rubbing shoulders with the doodlers there in a minute).
In a personal conversation I had with him away from the lights and cameras at the main-event hotel where he was staying, he told me of his goal to capture the U.S. presidency and how he was going to go about doing it. He said that all he needed was $1 contributions each from a million citizens and he would have $1 million for his campaign war chest.
I responded by telling Hatch that, in my opinion, he would never be elected President of the United States and gave him three reasons why:
* His opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment.
* His brutal mistreatment of Anita Hill during the Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas. Hatch responded that he had not inappropriately questioned Hill, while acknowledging to me that he knew Thomas had had "problems with pornography at Yale" but that this was an issue from "a long time ago." (As a sidenote on the Thomas matter, some years later Hatch signed a copy of a book in my possession entitled "Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas," by Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson [New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994]. Through Hatch's personal-friendship connections with Senator Kennedy, he arranged for Kennedy to also autograph the same book. Kennedy simply wrote, "To Steve--Best Wishes, Ted Kennedy." Hatch-- who apparently couldn't refrain from further attacking Hill--wrote above Kennedy's autographed remarks, "To Steve, Whenever you need literate fiction, this book will do the job. Hang in there. Orrin Hatch").
* Finally, his membership in the Mormon Church. (As is typical of the Hatch bravado, he blew off my observations).
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--Hatch and His Personal Use of Profanity--
For all of his politically-promoted allegiance to Mormon religiosity and and its family values, Hatch has a decidedly less-than-pure potty hatch. But he knew how to play it well.
At the Orlando convention mentioned above, Hatch (who can really be quite an affable and engaging fellow) was also quite the sh*t hit with my fellow inkslingers.
After he had finished his formal dinner speech to us in Orlando (where I served as his sidekick helping him during his presentation with operating the overhead slide projector and transparencies), Hatch spent a couple of hours lounging with a group of cartoonists in the hotel lobby,where he regaled them with stories about him and his friends on Capitol Hill. He pleasantly surprised many of those present by freely using the "sh" word, as he entertained them with tales about rubbing shoulders with government luminaries, including the likes of Teddy Kennedy, whom Hatch regarded as a close personal friend. (This was nothing new to me. I had frequently heard Hatch employ profanity when he would invite me to visit with him in his personal Senate office quarters).
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--Hatch, Paul H. Dunn and Efforts at Manipulating the News--
In the spring of 1990, when I was working at the "Morning News Tribune" in Tacoma WA, Hatch called me at my office and asked me to get my colleagues at the "Arizona Repubic" in Phoenix to stop their investigation of Paul H. Dunn. Hatch told me that Dunn was a personal friend of his and that he was concerned about what the reporters' inquiries were doing to Dunn. The "Republic" investigation that bothered Hatch was centering around Dunn's credibility problems arising from Dunn's alleged exploits as a combat soldier in World War II--stories which were eventually exposed as outright fabrications (as originally researched by Utah journalist Lynn Packer).
I asked Hatch if he was familiar with the charges against Dunn. He replied that he was not. I told Hatch that I could not, in good conscience, interfere with investigative reporters who were just doing their job.
Hatch thanked me and said he might get back to me. He never did.
*****
Hatch has made his share of ominous noises about what he claims are politically-motivated attack dogs lying in wait to pounce on Mormon politicians and the Mormon Church. There is no on who has used the Mormon Church more for political purposes than Mormon Orrin Hatch himself.
Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2014 05:31AM by steve benson.