BDBoop
Platinum Member
- Banned
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America's big shift right - CSMonitor.com
I don't think I could return to the Conservative mindset if my life depended on it.
For a generation, he has been considered a model of conservatism in Washington at moments, perhaps, the model. Over the course of his 34-year career, US Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah has clashed with Big Labor. He has championed right-wing judicial nominees. He has consistently opposed federal gun control measures and backed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. He has sponsored or cosponsored a balanced budget amendment which would require Congress to spend no more than it collects in revenues no fewer than 17 times. In 2010, the American Conservative Union gave him a perfect 100 ranking.
Yet today Mr. Hatch faces formidable opposition for not being conservative enough. Activists on the right are attacking him for his vote for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the financial-market bailout initiative, and his willingness to work with Democrats like the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. They complain that he has voted to raise the debt ceiling 16 times. It's looking increasingly as if Hatch will face a Republican primary challenger next year and could very well lose.
I don't think I could return to the Conservative mindset if my life depended on it.