The Mormon Curtain - ORRIN HATCH

My Personal History with Hatch

I have known Orrin Hatch for over a quarter of a century, going back to the late 1970s.

During that time, Hatch and I have had several conversations, both in person and by phone.

I first became acquainted with the Utah Senator when I worked on Capitol Hill for a Senate committee. Hatch's office and the one in which I was employed were in the Russell Senate Office building, right off the Hill, where I would visit with him on a fairly regular basis.

At Hatch's request, I drew his caricature, along with those of members of his family, and was invited to his home for dinner in Vienna, Virginia.

Hatch , in personal letters to me, expressed friendship and concern, as well as noting that he was praying in my behalf.
He also mailed to me a copy of a CD collection of religious hymns he had personally composed and then had set to piano music.
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Hatch's Quest for the American Presidency and His Views on Homosexuals

When Hatch was running for the Republican nomination for the presidency a few years back, I received a long distance call from him one afternoon as I was cleaning out the garage at our Arizona home.

Hatch was on the stump at the time, in the Midwest, and told me that he could use a cartoon from me supporting him in his run for the nomination. I politely sidestepped his request.

Later, when he came through Phoenix for a campaign debate and dropped by my newspaper for a visit, I provided him a copy of a cartoon I had previously done on him, which had criticized Hatch for anti-gay comments he had made in which, among other things, he had expressed public gratitude that he was not a Democrat and in which he noted that the Democratic Party was the party of the homosexuals. Hatch, in attacking gay supporters, also noted that Democrats tended to be more educated and financially well-off than Republicans.

When I handed him ta copy of my cartoon that took him to task for such antics, Hatch assured me that he had been misquoted. and misunderstood.
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Hatch's Use of Ezra Taft Benson as a Springboard into National Public Office

Hatch has often repeated to me over the years that what especially encouraged him to enter national politics was the strong support he received from my grandfather, Ezra Taft Benson.

My grandfather, in fact, acknowledged to me in personal correspondence that he regarded Hatch as a good man whose voice was sorely needed in the Senate and as a person who he hoped t would be in Congress for a long time to come.

[Indeed, in a personal letter to me from my grandfather, dated 21-22 April 1981, Ezra Taft Benson said the following about Hatch:

“I have become acquainted with many senators in my life. I know of no one who I feel made a better record in his first term than Orrin Hatch. I . . . hope that I may be helpful to one whom I feel is a great asset to the United States Senate and should be continued in office for many years to come . . . "; As an aside, Hatch told me some years later--after he had addressed our national cartoonist convention's opening event on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and we were walking out to where he was to catch his limousine curbside ride to another function--that his political opponents would "sell their mothers for a vote"] .
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Hatch and His Personal Use of Profanity

A few years ago, Hatch spoke by invitation to a national convention for the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, held in Orlando, Florida. I attended the event, where I had provided assistance for Hatch's appearance before our group.

Hatch was quite a hit with my fellow cartoonists.

After he had finished his formal dinner speech to us in Orlando, Hatch spent a couple of hours lounging with a group of cartoonists in the hotel lobby, regaling them with stories about him and his friends on the Hill.

He pleasantly surprised many of those present by freely using the "sh**" word, as he entertained them with tales about rubbing shoulders with government luminaries, including the likes of Teddy Kennedy, whom Hatch regards as a close personal friend.

(This was nothing new to me. I had frequently heard Hatch employ profanity when he would invite me to visit with him in his personal Senate office quarters).

After the gabfest was over, I accompanied Hatch to his hotel room, where we sat and talked, one-on-one, for another hour or so.
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Hatch's Further Designs on Winning the White House and His Thoughts on "Anti-Mormon" Literature

Hatch told me some interesting things about himself, about the Mormon Church and about his plans for higher office.

He confidently informed me that he was familiar with "anti-Mormon" arguments and that there was no criticism of the LDS Church that he either had not heard before or could not answer.

He boasted that he had, in fact, personally read over 10,000 pages of "anti-Mormon" material. He said that his thorough knowledge of the "anti-Mormon" position had favorably impressed a University of Utah professor, to whom he relayed this information.

I questioned Hatch's working knowledge of evidence against the Mormon Church, informing him that there was developing, mounting and credible data, much of it only recently made available, persuasively indicating that the Book of Mormon was a piece of 19th-century fiction.

I mentioned, in particular, Vernal Holley's work on the Spaulding Manuscript (which in my own studies had provided pivotal proof that Joseph Smith's production was non-historical), as well as geographical place-name similarities between supposed Book of Mormon lands and events and the topography of Great Lakes region of the United States.

Hatch did not demonstrate any knowledge of these specific counter-evidences but dismissed my arguments nonetheless, saying that his own research of Mormonism while in college had made him well aware of the critics' positions.

That aside, Hatch then confidently assured me that he would find much grassroots support among the American people in a run for the presidency.

Doing the math, he told me that all he needed was $1 contributions each from a million citizens and he would have $1 million for his campaign war chest.

I responded by telling Hatch that, in my opinion, he would never be elected President of the United States and gave him three reasons why:

* His opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment.

* His brutal mistreatment of Anita Hill during the Senate
confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas. (Hatch responded that he had not inappropriately questioned Hill, while acknowleding to me that he knew Thomas had had "problems with pornogrpahy at Yale" but that this was an issue from "a long time ago").

* His membership in the Mormon Church. (As is typical of the Hatch bravado, he blew off my observations).
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Hatch, Paul H. Dunn and Efforts at Manipulating the News

In the spring of 1990, when I was working at the Morning News Tribune in Tacoma WA, Hatch called me at my office and asked me to get my colleagues at the Arizona Repubic in Phoenix to stop their investigation of Paul H. Dunn.

Hatch told me that Dunn was a personal friend of his and that he was concerned about what the reporters' inquiries were doing to Dunn.

The Republic investigation that bothered Hatch was centering around Dunn's credibility problems arising from Dunn's alleged exploits as a combat soldier in World War II--stories which were eventually exposed as outright fabrications.

I asked Hatch if he was familiar with the charges against Dunn. He replied that he was not. I told Hatch that I could not, in good conscience, interfere with investigative reporters who were just doing their job.

Hatch thanked me and said he might get back to me.

He never did.