Trump Nemesis Mitt Romney Seen to Replace Orrin Hatch

With the announced retirement of Senator Orrin Hatch yesterday, one of my reactions is good riddance.  The man long overstayed his welcome - a view of 75% of Utah voters who did not want him to run for reelection - as evidenced by his rant that he supported working Americans even as he assisted in the passage of the Trump tax bill, perhaps the largest give away to the very wealthy and large corporations (few of which plan in increase employee salaries) in the history of the nation.  The other possible good news is that Mitt Romney will like run for the seat being vacated by Hatch and be elected.  Romney is one of the few Republicans who has maintained his attacks on Trump, perhaps because Trump is very disliked in Utah where Mormons, despite hypocrisy on a number of issues, find the amoral Trump distasteful.  While hardly my favorite individual, unlike most congressional Republicans, Romney still holds to at least a minimal sense of morality.  A Romney win would mean a GOP Senator could continue to bash Trump as has been the case with retiring Senators Corker and Flake.  A piece in Politico looks at the likely fun spectator sport that may exist if Romney takes Hatch's senate seat.  Here are excerpts:

Donald Trump had just returned from Utah last month when the president placed a call to his longtime nemesis Mitt Romney.

Trump was ostensibly trying to ease tensions between the two men, after a trip dominated by news reports that he was courting Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to run for reelection in order to keep Romney from seeking the seat. But the 10-minute chat only further raised suspicions within Romney’s inner circle that the president was out to stymie the former GOP presidential nominee’s political ambitions.

The conversation highlighted the fraught relationship between the Republican heavyweights — one that will now take center stage as Romney prepares a Senate bid in the wake of Hatch’s announcement Tuesday that he won’t seek another term, contrary to Trump's wishes. Should Romney run and win, as many expect, he will be poised to be Trump’s most prominent GOP foil, representing the wing of traditional Republicanism that the president has purposefully cast aside.

Romney has made little secret that he will be unafraid of taking on the president. The 2012 GOP nominee has informed a series of Republican Party donors, senators and power brokers in recent weeks that, while he isn’t looking to pick a fight with Trump, he is more than willing to speak out against him. During the 2016 campaign, Romney derided Trump as a “phony” and “fraud” and implored the party to nominate someone else.

Romney is also guided by frustration with the president, which he has long spoken about openly. In June, during an appearance at his annual Park City donor retreat, the former governor grew emotional when he implicitly criticized Trump’s “America First” approach to foreign policy, arguing that the U.S. had an important humanitarian role overseas. In June 2016, speaking at the same event, Romney choked up while describing then-candidate Trump as often hurtful.

The former governor slammed the president over his handling of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last summer, and broke with Trump after the president endorsed accused child molester Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race.

Romney is wasting little time preparing for a Senate bid, though aides say an official announcement is likely several weeks away. Among his tight-knit circle, there is already talk about who will oversee his campaign, a job that will likely fall to longtime top aides Matt Waldrip, Spencer Zwick and Beth Myers.

Several other Republicans, including state Auditor John Dougall and state Rep. Daniel McCay, have been mentioned as potential candidates. But many Republicans in the state believe Romney, who is well-liked in Utah and has a sprawling fundraising network, would enter the race as the heavy favorite.

His needs would be minimal,” said former Utah Republican Party Chairman Bruce Hough, who has been in touch with Romney. “He would be as close to a consensus candidate as you can get.”

I continue to believe that the Republican Party is beyond saving, but should Romney be elected, he might at least slow the GOP's complete descent into something hideous. 

Utah GOP to Spend $2 Million Opposing Gay Marriage

Utah House Speaker Becky Lockhart (R)

Talk about misplaced priorities!  As the Congressional Republicans get their wish and cast over 1 million unemployed Americans into the gutter,  Republicans in Utah have enthusiastically announced that the Utah Republican Party will expend up to $2 Million to hire private legal counsel to fight the U.S. District Court ruling striking down Utah's bans on gay marriage.  Today's Republicans will spend millions to deny civil rights to citizens while throwing away the families of the unemployed like unwanted garbage.  It is vile and disgusting.  KLS TV reports on the Utah GOP's decision to spend freely to support hate and bigotry.  Here are highlights:

SALT LAKE CITY — The price tag for hiring outside counsel to defend Utah's voter-approved constitutional amendment on marriage is expected to be close to $2 million, money that key GOP lawmakers are willing to spend. 

"We need the best we can get," House Speaker Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, said after a House GOP leadership meeting Friday with newly named Attorney General Sean Reyes. "He's coming into this, frankly, in the middle." 

Reyes laid out his case for bringing in help to seek a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court of last Friday's ruling striking down Amendment 3, a decision resulting in same-sex marriage being allowed in Utah. 

He has said he also intends to use the outside counsel to bolster the state's appeal of U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby's ruling to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and possibly to the Supreme Court.

Lockhart said she is hearing from other lawmakers that their constituents are willing to fight for Amendment 3 in court, even if that means coming up with more cash. 

"To go through the court process on an issue that, on a 2-to-1 vote the people of our state felt was important to have in our constitution, I think is of value," the speaker said. 

Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, said he has yet to talk with Reyes about hiring outside counsel but would likely be willing to appropriate the funds in the coming legislative session. 

"We should be paying for the best and the brightest," [Senator John] Valentine said. "This is a case that is not only a historic precedent, but it's one that really goes to the core of what states' rights is all about."

Senate Minority Leader Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, however, said there's no need to hire outside counsel.   "I think it's a ridiculous way to go. I don't think we're going to win," Davis said. "I believe we have appropriated the money for the attorney general's office for good attorneys to be able to argue any issue." 

"Defending discrimination while expending millions of taxpayer dollars to do it is beyond explanation," the HRC said. "It should be an affront to all Utahns that their hard-earned tax dollars — dollars that should be going into schools, roads or health programs — will instead be used to be on the wrong side of history." 

Opponents of gay marriage are really no different than those of the past who opposed the abolition of slavery and later who supported Jim Crow laws.  It is ALL about hate and bigotry and, as in the past religious belief is cited to justify the mistreatment of others.  Religion truly is toxic.

Read more at http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=28161567#iFGZUxmRd5yTv4RZ.99