This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Sen. Orrin Hatch should look up the ancient admonition to be careful what you wish for.

The six-term Republican incumbent and his staff have lamented for weeks the supposedly unfair tactics of FreedomWorks, the right-wing PAC that is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat him in the Republican state convention later this month.

Hatch and his supporters are perplexed that the self-described conservative organization has spent more money to defeat him, a conservative, than it has to defeat Democrats, or to elect conservatives in other states. It has spent more money to beat him than it has to defeat President Obama, he says.

He also complains that much of what FreedomWorks has said about him is false or misleading, containing half-truths at best. And he complains that the money FreedomWorks is spending to defeat him comes mostly from anonymous donors, so nobody can know the true motives of his attackers.

He is right about all those claims.

But he asked for it.

Hatch was one of the many Republicans who supported the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that removed limits on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions and led to the formation of the superPACs that are dominating the political landscape this election year.

Hatch and his Republican colleagues also balked at proposed legislation that would have required disclosure of the superPAC donors.

But at the time, considering how most Republicans applauded the decision and most Democrats denounced it, the general assumption was that the Citizens United decision would be used as a tool to defeat Obama and other Democrats, not as a shiv to stick in the back of loyal Republicans like Hatch.

And indeed, Hatch has been a loyal Republican no matter what FreedomWorks claims.

For decades he has wielded and at times fallen on his sword for partisan GOP causes, including confirmations of conservative judges nominated by Republican presidents.

Hatch led the charge for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' appointment to the bench.

He also was a strong advocate for conservative justices Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.

They are the justices, along with Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose votes made Citizens United law, reversing decades of precedents.

During the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing for Elena Kagan, Hatch grilled the Supreme Court nominee about her opposition to Citizens United when she was President Obama's solicitor general.

She explained that as an advocate for the administration at the time, she was pushing the agenda of her client. But as a jurist she would have a different approach.

Hatch, during that hearing, proclaimed his enthusiastic support for Citizens United, which now is being used to bury him.

Note that Hatch isn't above using the same tactics employed by FreedomWorks.

A pro-Hatch superPAC called FreedomPath has run a flurry of ads against Dan Liljenquist, the former state senator who is challenging Hatch in the GOP convention and is considered the incumbent's biggest obstacle to claiming the nomination.

Liljenquist's supporters have pointed out inaccuracies in the ads' claims, just as Hatch supporters have pointed out inaccuracies in the FreedomWorks ads targeting him.

And, like FreedomWorks, FreedomPath keeps the names of its donors secret.

You'll recall that FreedomWorks was instrumental in defeating three-term Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, another hearty Citizens United endorser, at the state convention two years ago.

That led to the election of freshman Sen. Mike Lee.

I have to believe there are Republicans in this state who are having buyer's remorse on that one.