Hatch: Chaffetz’s Speaker Bid May Send Us Even Deeper Into ‘Chaos’

UNITED STATES - August 4: Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, begins the Senate Finance Committee hearing on "A Way Back Home: Preserving Families and Reducing the Need for Foster Care" in the Dirksen Senate Office Buildin... UNITED STATES - August 4: Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, begins the Senate Finance Committee hearing on "A Way Back Home: Preserving Families and Reducing the Need for Foster Care" in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, Tuesday, August 4, 2015. (Photo By Al Drago/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images) MORE LESS
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Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the chamber’s longest serving Republican, said on Wednesday that the campaign for House speaker by fellow Utah GOPer Rep. Jason Chaffetz could plunge Congress even further into “chaos” as the fall budget debates begin.

Hatch, the Senate pro tempore who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said Chaffetz’s efforts could prevent Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from getting the necessary support.

“Which is in my view a pretty bad thing. The more the House stays in chaos, the worse it will be,” Hatch told Politico on Wednesday.

Chaffetz is also seen as inexperienced, though McCarthy has only been Congress a short while longer.

“What will be held against him by some is he has only been in Congress for a short period of time, and may or may not have built up enough cachet to be the speaker,” Hatch said. “McCarthy hasn’t been here that long either, but he’s been here longer than Jason. It does take a lot of experience to be able to run some of these things. Just look at Sen. (Mitch) McConnell: He’s a master.”

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  1. Avatar for saylen saylen says:

    Mitch “Make him a one term President” McConnell? Mitch “Republican majorities in both chambers but not one single agenda item passed into law” McConnell? Mitch “Ted Cruz is still a thing and continues to wreak havoc even though we have every opportunity to marginalize him” McConnell?

    That master?

  2. I thought he was talking about The Master from Doctor Who…an insane, evil Time Lord. Which would explain A LOT about McConnell.

  3. Avatar for mjv135 mjv135 says:

    What you call chaos, your party now considers patriotism. They came here to shut things down, they came here to take hostages and bend the American system to their petty, selfish, racist ideals of what they consider real freedom is - basically “I got mine, Fuck you.” And you helped get them here, so, thanks and shut up and let them carry on with their little tantrums or you’ll be primaried and replaced as well.

  4. Wow. Ever the establishmentarian…even going so far as to dis a fellow Mormon, though Chaffetz is probably less of a Mormon in his eyes since he came to the cult late in life. Besides, Jon Huntsman says Chaffetz is a total jerk and that’s probably enough for Hatch.

  5. Halfway down the mountain, Little Oren wondered if getting in the toboggan had been a good idea…

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