Orrin Hatch: Term Limits are for Nutcakes

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Halleluiah. Six more years of Orrin Hatch. By the time he is up for re-election he will have served 36 years in the U.S. Senate. To Democrats in Utah (all fifty of them), Hatch’s hypocritical stance on term limits is a familiar part of the state’s political folklore. During Hatch’s first run for political office in 1976, he made term-limits a central part of his campaign against popular incumbent senator Frank Moss. He once told Moss, “Senator, you have served the people of Utah for 18 years; it’s time to retire.” (Source: “Legislators drag feet on term limits,” Deseret News, December 17, 2003)

Not only has Orrin Hatch refused to follow his own wisdom that Washington should be run by citizen-legislators, not career politicians, but he–as chair of the Judiciary Committee–has been a major opponent of federally legislated term limits, this according to the Cato Institute.

— Koshlan Mayer-Blackwell

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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