The Salt Lake City Tribune reports:
Sen. Orrin Hatch, who continuously decries the bitter partisanship in Washington, implied this week that Democratic success in November’s election could result in terrorist attacks on America.
Hatch was quoted in Tuesday’s Tooele Transcript Bulletin as saying Middle East terrorists are “waiting for the Democrats here to take control, let things cool off and then strike again.”
Of course the Democrats — who Republicans insist they want to work with in the spirit of bipartisanship (read any story about GOPers explaining why they are supporting Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman) — are upset. And apparently Hatch is backing away from the comment:
While Hatch now says he does not recall making the reported statement to the Tooele newspaper, it would not be the first time he tied terrorist action to Democrats seeking office.
The “I don’t recall” defense doesn’t work too well with politicians in this age of the Internet and super-quick news cycles. Read more details in the linked story.
We thank Raw Story for the tip.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.