This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Re "Hatch for Senate: Give Utah's lion one more term" (Our View, Sept. 23):
Your endorsement of Sen. Orrin Hatch for re-election to the United States Senate is laughable. You call Hatch a "lion of the Senate". The lion symbolizes strength, courage, a willingness to not back down.
When it comes to tea party activists, Hatch has been a pussycat of the Senate. He spent the past two years distancing himself from any piece of progressive legislation or policy that he supported before the tea party came out against them.
For example, the now stalled DREAM Act, the bipartisan legislation pioneered by Hatch and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., in which qualifying undocumented youth would be eligible for a six-year-long conditional path to citizenship that requires completion of a college degree or two years of military service.
If you want a senator who is afraid of his own shadow, Hatch is your man.
David Douglass
Holladay