| Wednesday, February 22, 2006 |
| CHUMP OF THE WEEK: Sen Orrin Hatch |
 CONGRATS shall be extended from all of us here at the HD to a one Sen Orrin Hatch (R-UT) for earning this weeks "Punkass Weak-Willed Chump o' da Week!!!"
(h/t to ThinkProgress.com for some of the links and analysis)
BACKGROUND: The "Memogate" before Rather's "Memogate". In late 2003, GOP staffers, one of which being Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist aid Manuel Miranda, were 'caught stealing' approximately 4,700 strategy documents produced by Senate Democrats from a shared computer server. These documents were internal memos laying out tactics and objections to President Bush's judicial nominees. After downloading and reviewing these documents, they were then leaked to the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times. Sen Hatch, then-Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, received much criticism from conservatives for launching an investigation into whether or not any criminal statutes were violated as a result of the breach. At the time, many conservative activists accused Sen Hatch of being a weak-willed propitiator of Democrats. In the 60-page plus report by Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle on March 04, 2004, he concludes that several criminal statutes may or may not have been violated (if you can call that a conclusion). It also discloses that some committee members asked about the possibility of pursuing a "false statement case" against Manuel Miranda. This recommendation was followed up on and this matter is currently in the hands of the Justice Department. With the convening of the 109th Congress in 2005, Republican-imposed term limits on committee chairmanships left Sen Hatch without one.
JUSTIFICATION: On Saturday (2/18/06), at an invitation-only luncheon with political and business leaders of Iron County, UT, Sen Hatch had this to say:
And, more importantly, we've stopped a mass murderer in Saddam Hussein. Nobody denies that he was supporting al-Qaeda. Well, I shouldn't say nobody. Nobody with brains. That's right Sen Hatch, only one without a brain would conclude that Saddam DID NOT have ties to al Qaeda. So, to the 9/11 Commission and the Senate Intelligence Committee (of which, as Nico of ThinkProgress points out, Sen Hatch is a member) who both found no collaborative relationship between the two, you're all a bunch of brainless morons.
Initially, the Senator's statements were only reported on by the Spectrum, a small Utah paper, but due to the outrageousness of such a statement by a US Senator, the story was soon picked up by the blogosphere and has been whirling around the sphere ever since.
Earlier today, the Salt lake City Tribune reported on Sen Hatch's 'clarification' of afformentioned remarks.
On Tuesday, Hatch said he may have misspoken at the event, and he was speaking of conditions in post-Hussein Iraq and the terrorist network led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "Saddam clearly had a long history of supporting terrorists, but I was not talking about any formal link between Saddam and al-Qaida before the war," Hatch said in a statement. "Instead, I pointed out that the current insurgency in Iraq includes al-Qaida, under the leadership of al-Zarqawi, along with former elements of Saddam's regime."
Rrrrrriiiight! Now this is quite a stretch, Senator. Seriously, other then those skeptical few who claim that al-Zarqawi is merely an imaginary enemy, the logic behind such a belief escapes me, is there anybody who actually believes that al Qaeda is not involved in the insurgency. Because it was my understanding that al Qaeda is essentially funding the damn thing as well as supplying bodies and trainning.
To Senator Orrin Hatch, for his failed attempt at continuing to mislead the American people on the false claim that al Qaeda had ever had strong links to Saddam's regime. Congratulations Punkass! |
posted by MindSquash the Brain Worm @ 4:56 PM   |
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