Orrin Hatch shows just how smart he is

February 21, 2006

I find it hard to believe, nearly three years after the start of the war in Iraq, any serious person would try and use the Saddam-al Queda link to justify the invasion. Of course, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is not a serious person. (via ThinkProgres)

“[W]e’ve stopped a mass murderer in Saddam Hussein. Nobody denies that he was supporting al-Qaida.”

In a clear attack on Democrats, Hatch added, “Well, I shouldn’t say nobody. Nobody with brains.”

We’ve been through this, how many times? All available evidence suggests, at the most, there may have been low-level, episodic contact between Iraq and al Qaeda. The 9/11 Commission concluded that Saddam and Al Qaeda did not have a “collaborative operational relationship.” Saddam Hussein didn’t try and establish a connection to al Qaeda; he did the opposite, warning his Iraqi supporters to be wary of the network.

This isn’t complicated. And yet, Hatch thinks Dems are morons for disagreeing with his bogus claim?

Every time a poll comes out showing confusion about Iraq, 9/11, and al Queda, I tend to think Americans need to take responsibility for being better informed. But it’d be a lot easier for the electorate to know the facts if our leaders stopped trying to mislead people like this.

“He said she said” journalism means never having to back down from a lie. Just keep repeating the lie, and the most that will happen is your falsehood will eventually start appearing with a tepid rejoinder. (“But critics of the administration disagree.”)

  • Dude, I just visited a right-wing blog this morning where at least four commenters swore there was an Iraq-al-Queda-9-11 connection. “They” all have brown skin, worship Allah, and they’re all evil. No thinking required, there’s a vast media conspiracy to cover up the WMD that were shipped by the Soviet inteligence service to Syria. Saddam wrote memos that only certain wing-nut web sites have knowledge of that show where he planned everything with OBL.
    and P.S.- Armstrong never landed on the moon it was all a liberal hoax to get your tax dollars.

    Good name for a blog, The Daily Rightwing Urban Myth

  • I was shocked to find out last month that my mother believed that Saddam supported al Quaeda. We were having a cordial (for us) political discussion about the “War on Christmas,” gun control, the next presidential election, etc., and I offhandedly mentioned that I couldn’t believe how many people still believed that ridiculous lie. Her silence was enough to tip me off that I had stepped in it. She believed me when I told her the facts, but said she had never heard that. She only gets her news from Fox.

  • Well, even worse is the “supporting al-qaida” claim. Contacts? One can have contacts and not be considered “supporting.” I am sure the US has certain folks contacting Hamas officials in Palestine, but that does not mean we support Hamas. There is absolutely no evidence of “support” and in fact all evidence indicates that Hussein in fact did not “support” al-qaida and instead went out of his way to disavow them.

  • But why don’t the Democrats rise up and swat
    this nonsense down? Why don’t they go on
    the offensive, and tell the American people
    what a fraud the whole thing was? And is.

    They’re afraid to admit that the war in Iraq
    was a colossal blunder because they think
    that will make them appear weak on national
    security. What a bunch of crap!

    If they won’t challenge the war from the ground
    up, why should the American people believe
    their plan for tweaking the mess will be
    any better than Bush’s stay the course? It’s
    just carping.

    If 55% of the American people, in the face of
    all the Republican propaganda and media
    manipulation and cheerleading over three
    years have come to the conclusion that it was
    a mistake to go into Iraq, then why the hell
    can’t the Democrats capitalize and build on
    it, until there is overwhelming support to throw
    the bastards out in 2006 and 2008?

    But they won’t. They just won’t.

  • hark, i have no idea what the answer to your question is. it remains a mystery. however, i do bet that if it was a GOP senator that was in a dogfight this election (Santorum??) or in 2 years, it would be hotly contested. But as this is hatch, in a state that is highly populated by people who have never really shown an inclination to determine facts or to question their GOP leaders/talking points, the Dems don’t bother. Which is a problem. Dean should go to that state and contradict this on hatch’s own turf, backed by quotes, graphs, reports.

  • Of course there is a link between Hussein and al Qaeda. Here it is: Both have done a lot of business with members of the Bush administration.

    See? And you guys were all baggin’ on Hatch. I bet you feel just a little bit silly now…

  • What we are finding out is that Saddam ran an Islamic state the only way one can be run and keep anything close to order. The terrorists that are there now are the ones he terrorized into leaving. Only the more bold would take his position. There’s old ones and there’s bold ones but NO old bold one’s.

    We are now taking the “Wyatt Earp” test. How brave, corageous and bold are we? That is the question. The answer is, “we’re staying the course.” Of course anyone dumb enough to go in may not be able to find his way out so staying the course may mean running in circles for a while. Anyone have a compas?

    http://www.hoax-buster.org

  • Snorrin’ Orrin is like one of those film parodies of a Roman senator:

    Physically disgusting..
    Mentally disturbed…
    and,
    Morally debauched.

    Indeed, the only group of people who make American Senators look good are Televangelists…. and when it comes to Snorrin’ Orrin…. even that comparison doesn’t prettify.

    For sure,
    when God created the word PECKERWOOD…
    He had Orrin in mind…

    He is… the platonic ideal.

  • ….and here I sit enjoying the great “honor” of being one of Orrin Hatch’s constituents. Believe me when I say that I take no pride in that fact.

    I have to say that bubba was right on with his description of most of the Utah citizenry. Personally, I have written Sen. Hatch several letters on various issues within the last six months. When I receive a response from his office it starts off “Thank you for expressing your opinion, but I’m afraid that we will have to agree to disagree”. One of these letters was in response to my protest to the Harriet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court.

    I want you all to know, though, that not all of us Utah residents have our brains turned off. There is a vocal minority here. It’s just a very small minority.

    Thankfully, there is a movement among conservatives and liberals alike to unseat Orrin Hatch in the next election. These movements have come along before only to fizzle out when the people of Utah were told that our state would lose power in the Senate (this was back in the days when Hatch was the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee). Now that his power is on the wane, MAYBE there is a chance that he will be sent packing.

  • Yes, the truth needs to get out there, but it isn’t going to unless we do it, I guess.

    This is far from the first time Hatch has lied about this. The best thing would be to get the word directly to his voters in Utah, flooding Utah papers with letters telling the truth. Not repeat not succumbing to the temptation to snark. Just a polite letter quoting Hatch, giving chapter and verse of the truth and the sources, and possibly some references to Hatch repeating this canard in other places. Start with the paper that reported his latest speech.

    I’m with “out west,” possibly because I’m out west too and wary of patronizing comments about heartlanders. We’re pretty decent folk but we have the cruddiest representation you can imagine. I give you my senators, Cornyn and Hutchinson, masters, too, of the “agree to disagree” letters!

  • koreyel, PECKERWOOD is an upgrade, the new and improved version KNUCKLE HEAD that features ease of expression, one word rather than two as well as a near perfect description.

  • The best explanation I can think of about Orrin Hatch is to get in I-15 out of Los Angeles and drive through Utah. Stopping for gas, one look at the constituents is all it takes to see how Snorrin’ Orrin continues to look like a “leader.”

    I really feel sorry for the smart people I know who do live there. It must be excruciating dealing with those droolers every day. But then, didn’t God say first cousins shouldn’t marry each other through six generations?

  • And then there is this from today’s Providence Journal (from the great blue state of Rhode Island) in the top editorial:

    “Answering the WMD question — and also the unresolved matter of Saddam’s links to al-Qaida — is critical to getting U.S. national politics back on keel.”

    AAarghh!

    I wrote an LTE in response citing the 9/11 commission and Paul Pillar and ended with this:

    “Funny, I would have thought that proving the Iraq – al Qaeda connection BEFORE rushing to war would have made much more sense.”

    We’ll see if it gets published.

    They’re like ostriches with their heads in the Iraqi sands.

  • Saddam’s voice uttering those words right out of hs mouth proclaiming his solidarity with terrorist organizations who hate America will never convince the hatred-consumed Democrat Operative Wannabes beating this dead horse. The Leninist Virus, infecting the logic centers of the brain, is rampant in the Democrat LumpenKnechte Circles. The alternate universe of the haters is going to be an unforgiving place, ere the battles are fought and won.

  • waumpuscat, you must not know the mindset of those of great faith in the world of Islam. Give it a try.

    AN ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND.

    America is Saddam’s enemy. America is terrorist enemy. Therefore terrorist are Saddam’s friends. That doesn’t mean he has given them free access to Iraqi territory, allows training camps, bomb factories or any of the things we think of when thinking terrorist organizations. All it means is they have us for a common enemy.

    What is not known about the enemies of America by those in charge of protecting America is reflected in your comment. It probably has something to do with the “born again” mindset that is an equal to the Islamic mindset. Both have bought a hoax, the ancient sacred scriptures as the word of God. They call God, Allah. Can you understand that God and Allah are the same word in two different languages?

    Give that a try at: http://www.hoax-buster.org

    It will change your attitude about conservatives like me who you think are liberal. Realizing that religion is the great enemy of democracy does not make me liberal. People liberal with democracy vote against abortion thinking they are being conservative and have gotten us an abortion for government. The war in Iraq is an abortion. “Stay the course” It’s just a few short steps to the edge of the cliff. Then what, over the side?

  • Maybe Orrin Hatch needs to take a long look at the pictures of Saddam and Rummy shaking hands, and look into the help Rummy gave him with his WMD program. There seems to be a connection there.

  • Orrin Hatch, like Tony Snow, is a hand puppet of the Administration. His mouth moves and spouts the party line. As all of them do, he lies. They lie. Of course they lie. Truth isn’t important. Only what they think in their head, only what concotions get brewed in their bunker-like mentality, seem to be “real” to them. So why — why, indeed? — would anyone expect anything else from them? It was convenient to lie about Iraq being connected to Al Queda. Hatch says anything that politically expedient; he’s been a Senator so long he probably can’t distinguish truth from fiction. Bush’s head is so muddled that he probably believes the lies; Rove likes twisting people’s heads; so does Cheney. By this time they may believe we went to war to stop Al Queda in Iraq. But my point is: Who cares? It’s not true and truth IS NOT IMPORTANT TO REPUBLICANS. Constantly being surprised by this is the way to continue to be a victim. Fighting back and reclaiming the electorate is the way not to become a victim. Lying is the only way the Republicans know to keep the Democrats at bay.

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