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Letter: Hatch has much to apologize for

(John Duricka | AP Photo) Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, questions Professor Anita Hill on Friday, Oct. 11, 1991 in Washington during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., looks on.

The 2018 Sen. Orrin G. Hatch Apology Tour continues, as he reverses himself regarding statements that our president is not subject to the rule of law.

This follows expressions of regret to the former wives of White House staff secretary Rob Porter for knee-jerk denials of spouse abuse, to Sen. John McCain for telling the senator who should attend his funeral, and to Affordable Care Act supporters who are, in the senator’s words, stupid dumb-asses.

If Hatch really wants to get right with the world, these apologies will need to continue, and go back several years. He could start in October 1991 and his smugly patriarchal interrogation of Anita Hill. That spectacle is a milestone in the gender discrimination and sexual harassment that men like Hatch have institutionalized in Washington’s halls of power.

And why, one must wonder, are the powers that be in Utah, including the University of Utah, planning a monument to the senator with a focus on “civility” and “bipartisanship”? A library and think tank devoted to hypocrisy is what, in reality, it will be.

Terry Orme, Sandy

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