Hatch has been a staunch Republican partisan throughout his career and that has gotten him into trouble. It also has engendered admiration for Utah's senior senator, who often is the Republican point man on controversial issues. The media are quick to accommodate because Hatch is a good interview.

But sometimes he goes too far.

Two Sundays ago Hatch was defending the Justice Department's firing of eight U.S. attorneys when he singled out Carol Lam, the fired U.S. attorney from Southern California, stating she was a former law professor with no prosecutorial experience who ran Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in her home region.

None of that is true, and Hatch's comments mirrored national radio commentator Rush Limbaugh's lies about Lam several days earlier.

Hatch wrote apologies to Russert and to Lam. Aides say the description of Lam actually fit her Clinton-appointed predecessor and was meant to show how politically connected these appointments are, but Hatch misread the briefing.

Hatch has stumbled along the partisanship path before. Last year he warned a small-town Utah newspaper of impending doom if the Democrats won Congress. When his comments became national news, he attempted to "clarify" the statement.

In the 1980s, speaking to a Republican group in the conservative haven of St. George, he called Democrats the party of "abortionists and homosexuals." He got the desired laugh, but the audience included the Southern Utah correspondent for the Associated Press. When his comments made the national wire, he contended he had been misquoted. Unfortunately for Hatch, the correspondent always carried a tape recorder.

During the confirmation hearing for eventual U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Hatch was the fiercest attacker of Anita Hill, who had accused the conservative Thomas of sexual harassment. That earned Hatch a dose of derision from women's rights groups.

When the family of Kenneth Trentedue claimed he was beaten to death by guards in a federal prison in Oklahoma and that the Justice Department had covered it up, Hatch said he would launch an investigation. When President Bush was elected and the Justice Department changed hands, Hatch's concern apparently evaporated.

Hatch isn't alone in his overzealous partisanship. Both parties are guilty and it seems to be getting worse.

I'm picking on Hatch because I think he is a good man and he has shown an ability during his long and distinguished career to extend a friendly hand across party lines to pass meaningful legislation.

Hatch worked with liberal California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman to get affordable prescription drugs into the hands of low-income and elderly folks sooner. He worked with Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., to provide health coverage for previously uninsured children. He courageously stood against his own conservative base to promote federal funding for stem cell research and in-state college tuition for undocumented workers' children who completed high school in their state.

I would like to see him become the standard-bearer for a climate change in Washington. He has the energy, the stature and has shown the inclination to fight for principle over party. And he commands enough respect to bring some of his colleagues with him.