Grassley said: "It's just like the same thing: . . . You can't argue against putting, uh, putting, Hatch on the Supreme Court at age 75, because Mormons live forever, and he'll be around when he's 100 as a Supreme Court justice. So . . . maybe McCain will be around when he's 95 years old, but I think that you've got to consider the fact that it might be considered a weakness and a younger vice presidential candidate would help."
Just for the record: Hatch is 73 and he likes the idea of serving on the Supreme Court.
The face of voters
Trib colleague
Robert Gerhke sent us this astute observation after the primary vote:
There are some
interesting numbers to be gleaned from the
presidential primary exit polls for Utah. The polls show that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won across most demographics. And what does the typical Hillary Clinton voter in Utah look like?
Well, she's a 65-year-old-plus Catholic, with no college education and thinks the experience of the candidate was most important and the gender of the candidate mattered. She made up her mind a long time ago and is convinced that Clinton will be the most likely to unite the country.
And considering Mitt Romney's landslide, who in Utah voted for McCain? He's a white man holding a high elected office, say governor or attorney general. That's about it.
Keeping a low profile
Just about every major Utah politician endorsed a presidential candidate before Utahns hit the polls Tuesday. Everyone except for Democrat-who-doesn't-want-to-be-associated-with-Democrats Jim Matheson. He wasn't about to put his name next to Clinton or Obama and don't look for Matheson to become outspoken about his party's intense nomination battle anytime soon.
"I just haven't felt a need to do it," said Matheson, a few days before the vote. "I'm still learning about the candidates."
We'll assume he did his homework and voted.
Just can't swallow it
Former two-time GOP congressional candidate John Swallow has finally closed his campaign account, four years after he lost a second round to Matheson. But it appears that some supporters didn't want to let go of their hopes for a Swallow victory. In closing his account, Swallow donated $410 to the U.S. Treasury for uncashed refund checks.
The great communicator
President Bush made a big deal about presenting his budget to Congress electronically, a move his office said would save 20 tons of paper or roughly 480 trees. Anyone who wanted to thumb through the 2,000 page document could just shell out $200 and buy one.
It appears that the White House didn't vet this new e-friendly budget with Congress, because the Joint Printing Committee, which includes Utah Sen. Bob Bennett, demanded hard copies anyway.
So on the same day the president touted his environmentally smooth move, Congress had reams of paper delivered to every member's office.
Say goodbye to those 480 trees.
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* BURR and CANHAM
report for The Tribune from Washington. They can be reached at tburr@sltrib.com
For more political tidbits,
visit http://blogs.sltrib.com/ utahpolitics.
