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Orrin Hatch Tag

Soon to be retired Sen. Orrin Hatch is one of the handful of Senators behind the Music Modernization Act, passed by the Senate last week. Co-sponsored by Sen. Lamar Alexander from Tennessee and Sen. Orrin Hatch from Utah, the bill (whose counterpart passed in the House a few months ago) would change the way musicians are paid for their work.

The Republican's longest-serving senator will retire at the end of his term this year. Sen. Hatch is 83-years-old and serving his seventh Senate term. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch released a video statement Tuesday announcing his plans to retire into public life.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough cause a Twitter storm when he posted a misleading tweet about Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT).  Scarborough misrepresented Hatch's comments about entitlements generally as being specifically about CHIP, a program created back in 1997 when Hatch co-sponsored the legislation with then-Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA). Scarborough has since taken down the tweet, but here is a screen cap of it:

Senate Republicans found a way to end the Democrat boycott of approval votes for President Donald Trump's Cabinet. The Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee changed the rule stating at least one member from each party must attend a meeting for the committee to do its work. The Democrats boycotted the hearing yesterday to approve Human and Health Services Secretary nominee Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) and Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin. They boycotted Wednesday's meeting, which forced Republicans to take action:
“It’s just another way of roughing up the president’s nominees,” said committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). “They have been treated fairly. We have not been treated fairly.”

I'm not jumping on the anti-Orrin Hatch bandwagon, and not making his primary race part of Operation Counterweight. Orrin Hatch is no Dick Lugar. ...

Mia B. Love wins Republican nomination in UT04 UPDATE (9:40  pm): Voting finally starts, after delay caused by bickering in the voting for another district. UPDATE (8:15  pm): Love and Wimmer advance to round 2.  Love 53%, Wimmer 30% on first ballot. Kenneth Gray – 1 vote, 0.12...

I find this interesting, considering that Hatch is facing a likely challenge from Jason Chaffetz, who is gaining in the polls. I like Hatch, although I'll readily admit I have followed him mostly as relates to judicial appointments, where he fought the good fight on Clarence...

Senator Orrin Hatch has written a Hanukkah song. The background is here. Thanks, Orrin.There's a lesson to be learned here, but unfortunately the Jewish community will not learn it because it is so deep in the pocket of the Democratic Party that it cannot see...