The Egg That Refused To Hatch

Christy Hardin Smith has a rough transcript of Orrin Hatch's embarrassing performance on Meet The Press this morning.

HATCH: "This has been badly handled by people…not by Judge Gonzales, but by others….These are top flight people, doing a terrific job…."

HATCH: "I have never seen him prevaricate. I have never seen him do anything that was wrong." (Vouching for AG Gonzales' credibility.)

HATCH: Boy, I'll tell you, there ought to at least be some evidence that something was really wrong here and uh, and uh, to imply that there was criminal activity…And in the Monica Goodling case. Let's be honest about it. Her attorney…it was one of the most gutsy letter…letters I have ever seen. He's says that the atmosphere is so poisoned on the Judiciary Committee, with no real justification, that he's not going to put her through it because, uh, you never know how they would miscontrue what she has to say.

RUSSERT: Sen. Hatch, let me ask you a simple question, however, if in fact the Preseident decides that Mr. Gonzales should step down…

HATCH (interrupting): Well, now, that's the President's decision. (Read in an unctuous tone.)

RUSSERT: And the President came to you and asked you to be the next AG, would you do it?

Sen. Hatch demurs and says he'd be awfully hard to confirm, all the while scowling about what meanies the Democrats are for asking questions. And then says that Gonzales is incapable of lying. (And says it with a straight face.)

Kudos to Sen. Pat Leahy for maintaining a straight face throughout this whole appearance. I think I would have found myself falling out of my chair laughing at Hatch's blustering, knickers in a twist performance. Leahy did manage to tweak Hatch for "actively campaigning" for the AG position this week (am still not certain if he was kidding, or if he was really tweaking him for it — but either way, it was hilarious.)

She didn't mention Hatch trying to spin out of the fact that he pleaded with the Bush Administration not to fire the US Attorney for Utah back in 2001. And while Russert was pretty solid today, he didn't approach the fact that the current US Attorney for that state is Brett Tolman, a Hatch protégé who, as a staffer for Arlen Specter, submitted the provision in the Patriot Act (since overturned) that allowed the Justice Department to appoint US Attorneys without Senate confirmation. Kyle Sampson is also a Hatch lackey, that didn't get mentioned either.

You think that Hatch is the only Senator going out of his way to defend Alberto Gonzales and the White House because he knows that the way into Bush's heart is through loyalty and he wants to be the man when the Attorney General finally gets canned?