Breaking News: Orrin Hatch leaving the Senate....

[NewtonMP2100]

....just announced....retiring at the end of this term.....


.....articles are being posted now....from NY Times:


Orrin Hatch to Retire from Senate, Opening Path for Mitt Romney

......Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the longest-serving Senate Republican, announced on Tuesday he will retire at the end of the year, rebuffing the pleas of President Trump to seek an eighth term and paving the way for Mitt Romney to run for the seat.

Mr. Hatch made his decision public on Tuesday afternoon via a video announcement, according to two Republican officials briefed on the plans.

“When the president visited Utah last month, he said I was a fighter. I’ve always been a fighter. I was an amateur boxer in my youth, and I brought that fighting spirit with me to Washington,” he said. “But every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves. And for me, that time is soon approaching.”

Mr. Hatch, 83, was under heavy pressure from Mr. Trump to seek re-election and block Mr. Romney, who has been harshly critical of the president. But Mr. Hatch, who emerged as one of the president’s most avid loyalists in the Senate, decided to retire after discussing the matter with his family over the holidays. The veteran senator was also facing harsh poll numbers in Utah, where 75 percent of voters indicated in a survey last fall that they did not want him to run again.

Mr. Hatch’s decision comes just weeks after Mr. Trump signed a sweeping tax overhaul into law, a measure that the senator helped write as chairman of the Finance Committee. The bill represented something of a capstone to Mr. Hatch’s four decades in Congress and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, even deemed it as such last month in what was seen as a subtle effort to usher his colleague to the exits.

Mr. Hatch’s decision clears the way for the political resurrection of Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee who is now a Utah resident and is popular in the Mormon-heavy state. Mr. Romney has told associates he would likely run if Mr. Hatch retires.

“It would be difficult to defeat Mitt Romney if he were running here,” said David Hansen, a longtime Utah Republican strategist and chairman of Mr. Hatch’s political organization.

But Mr. Hatch had privately told Mr. Romney he was not sure he was ready to leave a seat he has held since 1977 and White House officials did all they could to nudge him into another campaign. Last month, Mr. Trump flew with Mr. Hatch on Air Force One to Utah for a day of events that was aimed entirely at lobbying the senator to run again......


say goodbye...........?!

[Ted King]

Welcome Senator Romney. Trump is probably all in goosebumps.

[cbelt3]

Lots of mainstream Republicans are hitting the escape Hatch.

[graylocks]

given that it's Utah and no dem would win there this progressive voter is finding herself hoping Romney makes a run and wins.

yes, this is the depths to which 45 has driven us.

[mrbigstuff]

yup, that is Romney's to lose, and he's going to run as sure as there is no caffeine in his coffee.

[SteveG]

Romney's another sure vote for conviction after the impeachment.

[pdq]

It seems a puzzling, yet undeniable fact of this world that a politician only discovers a yearning to "spend more time with family" after the polls come out that predict him/her losing a reelection effort badly.

[Acer]

pdq wrote:
It seems a puzzling, yet undeniable fact of this world that a politician only discovers a yearning to "spend more time with family" after the polls come out that predict him/her losing a reelection effort badly.

In his defense, we've just been through the holidays and we've all had enough family for now.

[Onamuji]

pdq wrote:
It seems a puzzling, yet undeniable fact of this world that a politician only discovers a yearning to "spend more time with family" after the polls come out that predict him/her losing a reelection effort badly.

I think that a man like Hatch believes deep in his heart that everything he does is not just correct, but unimpeachably is the will of God.

And when he is struck by the realization that he has pursued an evil path and has harmed everyone who trusted him -- and understands that his constituents know and speak of this very publicly -- the only moral action remaining to him is to stand down. It's the one good thing that he can do against an otherwise endless tapestry of corruption.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that it's actually moral. Fundamentally, he's really just embarrassed that it's so public.

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/editorial/...-the-year/

The selection of Sen. Orrin G. Hatch as the 2017 Utahn of the Year has little to do with the fact that, after 42 years, he is the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history, that he has been a senator from Utah longer than three-fifths of the state’s population has been alive.

It has everything to do with recognizing:

Hatch’s part in the dramatic dismantling of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
His role as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in passing a major overhaul of the nation’s tax code.
His utter lack of integrity that rises from his unquenchable thirst for power.

Each of these actions stands to impact the lives of every Utahn, now and for years to come. Whether those Utahns approve or disapprove of those actions has little consequence in this specific recognition. Only the breadth and depth of their significance matters...

[$tevie]