Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Senate Republican, is finally leaving Congress. He has announced that he won’t be seeking re-election at the end of this year.
The 83-year-old Hatch has served since 1977, when the Atari 2600 was released and came with nine games and two joysticks and sold for $199. Hatch has been in Congress so long that he was in office when Saturday Night Fever premiered, starring John Travolta.
If current theory is to be believed, then Hatch’s announcement that he won’t be running for re-election should clear the way for Mitt Romney to run for the seat.
According to the New York Times, Hatch, who was under heavy pressure from the president to run for an eighth term, made his announcement via video and decided to retire after discussions with his family. Also, while Hatch didn’t mention this, I’m sure recent surveys that noted that some 75 percent of Utah residents hated his old ass had something to do with his decision.
Donald Trump will not have a friend in Romney should he take Hatch’s seat. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Romney called Trump “a fraud.” Trump, who’s built his presidential empire on the low road, quipped back then that Romney had “choked like a dog” in the 2012 presidential race, the Times reports.
If nothing else, if Romney gets into the Senate, it will make for good television, which is right up Trump’s alley, considering that he’s a reality-television star acting like a president.
Read more at the New York Times.