The Salt Lake Tribune had a little article in Sunday’s paper that many of you might have missed, as it was in the obituary section. It recounts a couple of jokes made by Orrin Hatch at the Alfalfa Club dinner. One of the jokes is about the spying that the White House is doing:

“[I] had a joke that poked some fun at President Bush. It was all written out on my computer–and it was pretty funny. I was about to hit the ‘print’ button when the phone rang. It was Dick Cheney. He said, ‘Orrin, we just read your joke. Nobody likes that kind of humor. So if you just hit the delete button, you and your family won’t get hurt.’
“Of course, I did what he said. But it was still a friendly call. He also told me three of my movies were overdue at Blockbuster and my prescriptions were ready.”

Funny joke, if only it weren’t coming from one of the minds behind the PATRIOT ACT, one of most egregious open assaults on civil liberties since the Japanese internment camps of WWII (to take a cue from the old conservative exaggeration-to-make-your-point manual). To me, this joke is similar to when W made a funny about not finding WMD’s under his desk.

For the record, here’s Orrin’s other joke as recounted by the Trib:
“It’s been nearly 30 years since I arrived in this town a starry-eyed kid. Back then it was pretty awe-inspiring. As I looked around I saw Hubert Humphrey and Barry Goldwater, Bob Dole and Howard Baker… Today I glance around at my colleagues and think to myself, ‘How the heck did we come to this?’
…But that’s not entirely fair. Back then, Congress was ruled by an ossified, arrogant majority, incapable of acting on major legislation, plagued by ethical improprieties, fighting amongst themselves for the latest pork barrel project, and lollygagging each day in the musty old mildewed gym. Whereas today — well, we have a new gym”