As a junior staffer working for Sen. Orrin Hatch in 2006, I saw a job opening one day on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Arlen Specter was chairman. This could be my chance to get ahead, I thought.
But when I asked a friend if I should apply for the job, she said: “Sure. If you want to go home crying every night.”
I worked for one of the nicest senators, she pointed out, why would you want to work for one of the meanest? So I stayed for another two years, leaving eventually for a position in the Bush White House – the only job that could have been a step up.
It is no hyperbole to say Sen. Orrin Hatch was the best boss I ever had, and one of the inconceivably nicest bosses anyone in Washington could dream for. When he retires this January, he won’t get the unconditional, perhaps over-the-top plaudits heaped on John McCain after his death, but as a defender of liberty in the halls of Congress, Sen. Hatch’s tenure was no less serviceable.
His legislative resume is one any lawmaker would envy. Sen. Hatch was an integral part of the Reagan Revolution. He has served as chairman of the Finance Committee; Judiciary Committee; and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. He has been a champion of national security, free markets, and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.
But the thing which impressed me the most was the man himself.
In contrast to the horror stories about some members, I never saw Sen. Hatch belittle or mistreat anyone on staff. The lower down someone was on the totem pole, the kinder he was to them. While some members manage to inspire loyalty in their staffers, Orrin Hatch inspires love. “Once a Hatch staffer, always a Hatch staffer,” he reminded everyone when they left.
Sen. Hatch has a remarkable humility toward his office. He never demonstrated vanity toward the work, and recognized that his accomplishments were only possible thanks to the combined effort of everyone who worked for him. In one of our Monday morning meetings, he told us, “Everyone works for Sen. Hatch – even me. I just look like him.”
Outside the office – even though he could play hardball when he needed to – he carried the same spirit of brotherly love with him. He never took politics personally and tried to be friends with everyone. He’d give just as friendly a greeting in the halls to Pat Leahy as he would to Dick Lugar.
This is one reason he was such an effective legislator. Sen. Hatch never took a zero-sum approach to legislation. If he couldn’t get 100 percent, he knew that 50 percent was better than zero percent. And he genuinely believed everyone who came to this city wanted what was best for America, they just had different ideas.
This particular lesson he taught me during the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, something which had come under considerable fire in the post-9/11 furor about “domestic wiretapping.”
While I was walking with him back from a press spot in the Russell Rotunda one day, he confided, “We need people to push for privacy. If we didn’t, people’s rights would get stepped on. But we need people to push for security, or else people would get hurt. And security is my role.”
Again, I was impressed by his humility. Rather than demonize the other side, he acknowledged how valuable they were in playing their part. He knew that, in the dance of democracy, conservatism and liberalism were partners rather than enemies. Conservatism made America great while liberalism kept America good.
As Sen. Hatch and his wife, Elaine, ride into the sunset for a well-deserved retirement, that dance seems to have been spoiled. While there are many who wonder how Republicans could abandon conservatism for Trump-ism, the modern left has openly declared war on their traditional liberal values. Under the ominous, Orwellian term “progressivism,” they have become obsessed with censorship, thought control, and even violence. They don’t call themselves liberals any more because they aren’t.
But fighting the good fight is no longer Sen. Hatch’s responsibility. Democrats and Republicans will need to find a way to work together with one fewer harmonizing voice in the chorus. We hope that America can return to the civility of yesteryear, that it can be both great and good. We want the civility of our politics to help us sleep soundly at night – and not send us home crying every day.
Jared Whitley was press assistant for Sen. Orrin Hatch from 2006-08. He is currently president of Whitley Political Media, LLC – but, once a Hatch staffer, always a Hatch staffer.
