Orrin Hatch to support Eric Holder
By John Amato Monday Jan 12, 2009 5:00pm
The former Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee will support Eric Holder's nomination for attorney general, giving him a major boost toward confirmation.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), who chaired the panel for a decade beginning in 1995, told The Hill that he will support Holder. “I intend to,” said Hatch.
His decision could undermine GOP efforts to stall or block the confirmation. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said Friday that Holder would be the only Cabinet nominee to face a tough confirmation fight.
Hatch said that Republicans should try to strike a cooperative tone with President-elect Obama during the first days of his administration.“I start with the premise that the president deserves the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think politics should be played with the attorney general,” he said.
“I like Barack Obama and want to help him if I can.”
As obstructionists, I understand that the GOP will do everything they can to attack Obama, but I didn't see the political advantage to start the process by targeting Holder's nomination. I guess Orrin Hatch understands that his party should at least appear to want to work with Obama with them being so loathed in America and all, at least for the time being.
UPDATE: I finished this piece and saw an email that TP had a post up about Arlen Specter's wanking away on the Ashcroft nomination.
This morning, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) took to right-wing talk radio to continue his politically-motivated crusade against President-elect Obama’s Attorney General designate Eric Holder.
{snip}
Specter’s dismay at Leahy’s prediction is ironic, considering his past statements. On December 24, 2000, two days after then President-elect Bush announced that he had selected John Ashcroft for Attorney General and three weeks before Ashcroft’s confirmation hearings, Specter went on Face the Nation and confidently predicted that Ashcroft would be confirmed by the Senate:
SCHEIFFER: Senator Specter, you’re on the Judiciary Committee. Can John Ashcroft be confirmed?
SPECTER: Yes, I think he can be, and will be. I think the president is entitled to great latitude in the selection of his Cabinet officers. And I know John Ashcroft very well. He’s a first-rate lawyer. He was attorney general of Missouri.
Republican hypocrisy will never cease...
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one last battle will be greatly appreciated by all. we have a lot going on we need to move forward. the (R) need to be watched closely though.
He must be okay.
Down the Hatch!
Arlen Spector walks around the Capital with his pants around his ankles all the time - this is not surprising coming from him.
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The senator for the MPAA/RIAA supports the guy that helped the Chiquita people get away with murder. Lovely.
we all know you want to wangle a seat on the Supreme Court and you know this may be your last chance.
How interesting...the about-face of both Hatch and Specter. Specter has always been the fairest of all and, and rarely could I spot a fair bone in Hatch's body (with the exception of his support of stem cell research) and now, Arlen is gettin' after it and Orrin is simmerin' down!
Re-election reposturing anyone?
It's all great to joke around and make snarky comments, but the fact that Orrin Hatch has been a Senator since God-knows-when and his seat is rock-solid is a great illustration of what is wrong with our government. This is a guy who maneuvered to have a record producer acquaintance of his beat a drug conviction overseas. Additionally, he has fought long and hard against any kind of oversight of supplements (vitamins, weight loss, etc.). In other words, he has used his lofty position to benefit those who are connected to him to the detriment of the country at large. In my mind, there is really nothing worse that an elected official can do. And yet, term after term, he is re-elected and year after year, he turns up on TV where the same talking heads call him "distinguished" and "respected" and otherwise kiss his ass. I wish Obama all the best, but look at what he has to deal with--and Hatch is only one of a hundred.
Oversight of vitamins and supplements? Not when Utah is the home of 130 vitamin and supplement companies, including Nu Skin (sales over $1 billion last year of an industry that brings to Utah between $2.5 and $4 billion per year).
Hatch likes Holder's social positions, specifically relating to adult material, but also in general. He also clearly likes Holder's willingness to do political favors.
Orrin is nothing if not pragmatic.
wants to play in the middle and carry the appearance of striking a bi-partisan tone...
BUT... Democrtats have to learn to IGNORE what Republican dipshits like Orrin Hatch say in public.
Look at his involvement with Chiquita and tell me if that's the person you want for AG. There is nothing so good about representing a corporation supporting right wing death squads that overcomes the bad. I wish Specter the best of luck in his attempt to stop the Holder nomination - whatever his reasons. Holder will likely be nominated, but it won't be a victory for liberals.
who is behind the drive to keep Holder from becoming A.G. He is the one who has most to fear from ongoing investigations by the DOJ.
It is now clear why the Democrats chose Obama, a nobody with only a record of voting according to Party wishes, as their nominee. Obama is reinstating the Clinton Administration.
The Democrats need to let go of their failed past and do what the American People voted for, be original, be new!
It was the Clinton Administration that took credit for the success of Reagonomics to be their own. The Clinton Administration also let terrorist plan in peace around the world so they could make 9/11 happen. The Clinton Administration also enforced Jimmy Carter's "Fair Housing Act" by making lending institutions give the sub-prime loans we are all paying so dearly for right now!
Wake up and see the truth, Democrats are the downfall of our Country!
Pull you heads out and get some O2, it tends to help the cognitive process!
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