Politics: Explaining Hatch

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I've been inclined to be quite sympathetic to Utah senator Orrin Hatch over the years. Hatch, a Republican, has been in the United States senate since 1977, nearly my entire life. I was impressed with his polite and constructive demeanor on various political talk shows and during Supreme Court confirmation hearings in my teenage years. Thus, when my high school government class went through the inevitable exercise of simulating the senate, I chose to be a Republican senator from Utah. I made it so obvious that I was channeling Senator Hatch that at one point, our teacher actually called on me as "Senator Hatch" before correcting himself. (I'm probably not exaggerating much to claim that only the teacher, Dave Sherbrooke, and I appreciated what I was doing--I doubt any of the other students in that class had watched the Clarence Thomas hearings as most of the politically astute people in my class year had a different schedule that year.)

Besides the fact that he seemed to be a genuinely reasonable person, Hatch impressed me with some unconventional positions on issues over the years. Despite representing a very conservative (and very racially white) state, his positions on a number of issues have not been predictable. He has been one of the most outspoken senators in favor of stem cell research and other advanced medical technologies--a position contradicting the position of the Mormon Church, of which he is a member. He has favored loosening of immigration laws, being an original supporter of the H-1b visa (admittedly useful to some Utah companies) and of college education for the children of illegal aliens, certainly not a popular position in Utah. He even favors an amendment to the constitution that would allow naturalized citizens who have lived in the United States for twenty years to run for president. Most remarkably, despite some tough questioning during confirmation hearings, in the end he voted for both Clinton nominees for the Supreme Court.

Thus, it surprised me considerably when in the past six months or so, Hatch has seemed increasingly partisan and sometimes downright mean. He has spoken out forcefully against Democratic bills on health care reform (though it should be noted his statements have been factually accurate, unlike those of some Republicans). Most significantly, he voted against the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, the first time he had ever voted against a Supreme Court nominee.

What was going on? It should have been obvious already, but the death of Senator Ted Kennedy brought it into focus. Hatch was a close friend of Kennedy, dating back to the early 1980's when the two started working together on legislation. Hatch, in fact, had been instrumental in passing the original State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) in 1997. Kennedy and Hatch made deals all the time, and kept them. Without a healthy Kennedy in the Senate, that pull on Hatch was no longer there. Combine that with the increasingly polar climate in the Senate, and it's not hard to understand the change in Hatch's behavior.

This underscores that every senator who is capable of working across the aisle matters. As each additional remaining one disappears to death or retirement, the Senate becomes a more partisan place. Even those who are fully capable of behaving differently, like Orrin Hatch, no longer have people across the aisle with whom to compromise. The US senate is in a downward partisan spiral--here's hoping some of the remaining veterans like Hatch stick around long enough to perhaps see a reversal of the trend.

Politics: Yes, I Voted for Ted Kennedy

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Senator Edward Morris Kennedy died today at the age of 77 after a long fight with cancer. Once upon a time, I voted for Ted Kennedy. I was living in Massachusetts when he ran for re-election in 2000. Unlike 1994, when he faced Mitt Romney, Kennedy did not face significant opposition in 2000, and breezed to his seventh election to the Senate; my vote mattered little. He would be re-elected one more time in 2006.

Why did I vote for Ted Kennedy? Probably his only serious opponent that year was actually Libertarian Carla Howell; the Republican nominee, Jack E. Robinson III deserves an essay just describing his sometimes-pathetic antics. Yet, even if there had been powerful opposition, I would have voted for Kennedy anyway.

It wasn't because I was voting for the Kennedy legacy. Upon moving to Massachusetts, I wondered how often I would run into people that would vote for the senator and his family just because of the past. A few days after my arrival, I did hear a caller to a talk show on WBZ-AM express support "because I just think of everything [Kennedy's mother] Rose has been through and what this family has done for the country," but that was the only time I heard such a thing in eight years of living in the state. In fact, I would say it was far more common for people to disdain the younger Kennedys--but not Ted Kennedy.

People like me voted for Ted Kennedy because he actually did a good job of representing Massachusetts. While other politicians were also instrumental in procuring federal funds, Kennedy played his part in bringing home the bacon on such items as the Big Dig highway construction project or more funding for drug interdiction in Springfield. Even those on the right knew they were getting something from having Kennedy as their representative, and they were not inclined to vote against him.

People also just genuinely liked Ted Kennedy. He would show up at the hospital when ideological opponents were ailing. This underscored one of Kennedy's key traits--he may have been liberal, but he was not partisan (at least by modern standards). He understood how to reach out to all sides to get legislation passed. The list of Republicans that he worked closely with to pass various legislation reads like a who's who list of national Republicans in the post-Reagan era: Bob Dole, Orrin Hatch, John McCain, and even George W. Bush. The biggest symbolism of Kennedy's passing may be that of the death of bi-partisanship, as he was one of the few remaining masters.

I once saw the junior senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, have a beach ball thrown at his head at an "Earthfest" free concert along the Charles River as he worked his way through the crowd after giving an environmental speech. Nobody would have ever thrown a beach ball at Kennedy, even if they were diametrically opposed to him politically. He was too respected.

Yes, I voted for Ted Kennedy. There will be no more opportunities to vote for him, but one can hope there will be others in the Kennedy tradition to vote for someday. As he was known to say, "The dream shall never die."