ORRIN HATCHES AN EGG
REES, MATTHEW
ORRIN HATCHES AN EGG by Matthew Rees THE TEETH-GNASHING on Capitol Hill these days isn't coming from Democrats upset with Bill Clinton, but from Republicans exasperated with Orrin Hatch. The Utah...
...They ended up talking for over 20 minutes—Hatch was on a car phone— and Republicans later suspected the president hoodwinked Hatch with this timely chat...
...One senator told me that a longstanding problem for Hatch is "he's too easily flattered...
...Appearing to go soft on Bill Clinton may seem an odd way for a conservative to lay the groundwork for such a run, but friends and colleagues say Hatch is giving the race serious consideration...
...Hatch conceded that the White House argument against testimony had some merit and promised to introduce legislation next year to resolve the issue...
...In fact, Hatch's GOP critics have a laundry list of complaints: As Judiciary Committee chairman, Hatch has been too quick to confirm liberal judges...
...Hatch's Senate Judiciary Committee would have no role in a trial, unlike the House Judiciary Committee in the impeachment process...
...The senator was thinking of a stunt Clinton pulled with Hatch on the morning of September 13...
...Hatch's allies say some of the GOP animus stems from envy at the senator's extensive media exposure...
...The most serious complaint lodged against Hatch is that he's pre-empting the formal impeachment process...
...Every statement I've made has helped make us look like we're not trying to screw the guy...
...One Republican senator was so enraged, he wanted to play a videotape of the program for all GOP senators...
...Asked about his presidential ambitions, Hatch chuckles and says he doesn't take them too seriously: "I've had people come to me about running for president, but they've been doing that ever since I got to the Senate...
...Yet all of this is negated by the perception that he's gone soft on Clinton, that he's been trying to establish a weighty role for himself in the event of a Senate trial, and that he's using his Lewinsky visibility as part of a strategy for a presidential run...
...and, most damning, he's developed a close working relationship—even a friendship!— with Ted Kennedy...
...Orrin is viewed with great skepticism in the Republican conference these days," confirms one GOP senator...
...And noting he's been a consistent, outspoken defender of the independent counsel, he asks of his GOP critics, "Where were they when Ken Starr was being smeared...
...The first real sign of trouble came in July, when Hatch appeared on Meet the Press and equivocated on the question of whether the Secret Service should be required to testify before the federal grand jury...
...It also leads them to believe that Hatch is itching to be the broker for some form of punishment that doesn't lead to Clinton's ouster...
...Republicans may choose to designate someone to coordinate their efforts in a Senate trial, but one highly respected GOP senator says that even if this happens, "Hatch won't be the one selected...
...One veteran senator says, "I can't remember any other occasion when there was such extensive and heartfelt criticism of another senator...
...With senators not having to act on Clinton for at least a few months, Hatch will have an opportunity to give his presidential prospects a bit more attention...
...By the same token, if Hatch continues to irk his Republican colleagues, leaving the Senate to run for president could begin to look more attractive every day...
...Yet GOP goodwill toward Hatch didn't last long...
...In an interview last week, Hatch passionately defended his rhetoric about the president...
...Republican distrust of Hatch is so great that GOP staffers treat his apostasy with the joke, "Don't count your Hatches until they chicken...
...Only a late intervention by majority leader Trent Lott blocked this...
...Republicans knew something was amiss when House liberal Barney Frank, appearing on the program, replied, "I think Orrin has stated it exactly right...
...At this point, Hatch is doing no more than thinking about it, but one Hatch-nik says the senator's calm posture over the past few months will help him be perceived as a thoughtful, articulate voice in a chaotic environment...
...Matthew Rees is a staff writer for THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...As for Republicans who doubt the gentler approach, Hatch wishes they would think more about the consequences of what they say: "I don't think it's good for Republicans to blast away at the president knowing they don't have Democratic votes to impeach...
...During the Face the Nation interview, Hatch took some obligatory swipes at Clinton and his legal team, but also praised the president's apology at a prayer breakfast a few days earlier and predicted Clinton would survive if he dropped the legalisms and started "being what he is: a basically warm, winning person whom the American people have liked from the beginning...
...This was not an official Republican talking point...
...I've actually put Clinton in a bind by being moderate in tone...
...That makes us look like idiots...
...Given what's at stake now, Republicans aren't in a joking mood about Hatch...
...Hatch's oft-stated belief that there are not yet 67 votes for conviction—uttered most recently on the October 11 Meet the Press—strikes many as premature...
...True, he's been a vocal defender of Ken Starr, he's blasted the president's conduct, and he's held out the prospect of impeachment...
...The frustration among GOP senators became so great in September that when they met for one of their normally staid weekly lunches, almost a dozen members went after Hatch...
...Hatch redeemed himself in GOP eyes, though, when he hit six national news programs the night the president testified and derided Clinton's continued weaseling...
...Hatch was driving to CBS's Washington studio to appear on Face the Nation when Clinton called him...
...he's adopted a slew of Democratic causes (a federal hate-crimes law, billions for children's health insurance...
...But another factor may be Hatch's flirtation with a presidential campaign in 2000...
...But this image is at least a decade out of date...
...The Utah senator has logged some quality time on national television over the past three months—he's done 22 shows, by my count—but many Republicans believe his appearances have thrown a life preserver to Clinton and provided Democrats with cover to vote against conviction in a senate trial...
...Just about everywhere but the Republican cloakroom, Hatch is thought to be, as Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory put it, "a stiff-necked Mormon elder with . . . a permanently pursed mouth for lecturing people...
...In a muttered, off-air comment, he characterized Clinton as a "jerk," which further helped him with his fellow Republicans...
...Indeed, on October 1, a group of conservative senators upset with Hatch's pronouncements sent a private letter to Lott urging him to prevent any Senate action on a censure motion until the House had acted, and questioning whether any such motion would be constitutional...
...Hatch made two more appearances on Meet the Press before Clinton's August 17 grand-jury testimony, both times suggesting that if the president came clean about his relationship with Monica, he probably wouldn't be removed from office...
...But he's not going to pipe down about the impeachment process, saying, "If we are perceived as unfair, it is going to kill our party...
Vol. 4 • October 1998 • No. 7
