By PAUL ROLLY

| Tribune Columnist

There is something about Sen. Orrin Hatch and St. George.

Whenever Utah’s senior senator meets with Republicans in that ultra-conservative piece of southwestern Utah desert, he is moved to, shall we say, speak in tongues.

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There was the time in the 1980s when Hatch was speaking to a group of St. George Republicans and he referred to the Democratic Party as the party of "abortionists and homosexuals."

Then, in 2010, Hatch was speaking to another group of loyal Republicans in St. George when he said that "gays and lesbians don’t pay tithing; their religion is politics."

After that quote hit the national press, Hatch claimed he was praising gays and lesbians and other groups loyal to the Democratic Party for their willingness to donate money to political causes. He was rallying his fellow Republicans to do the same.

Now, he’s done it again.

Speaking at a Lincoln Day breakfast in St. George on Saturday, Hatch said, "I would be letting down my Father in Heaven if I didn’t run again."

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Home field advantage » At that same Lincoln Day breakfast, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, a tea party favorite, was invited to speak and turned the opportunity into a love fest for his colleague, Sen. Hatch.

But that’s not the way it is supposed to be at Lincoln Day events, which are fundraisers for the party and designed to keep neutral on intra-party races.

Hatch has two significant Republican challengers in his bid for re-election this year, Rep. Christopher Herrod, R-Provo, and former State Sen. Dan Liljenquist from Bountiful. Their supporters at the breakfast were outraged at Washington County officials who allowed a stump speech for just one of the GOP candidates.

But when word spread to Utah County Republicans, who had booked Kyl to be their Lincoln Day Dinner keynote speaker that night, County GOP chairman David Acheson called the Hatch campaign and said if Kyl’s speech didn’t stay neutral, he would not be allowed to continue speaking.

Hatch’s campaign got the word to Kyl, who stuck to basic Republican themes this year, like balancing the budget and hating President Barack Obama.

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Speaking of hating Obama » Gov. Gary Herbert revealed on his campaign Facebook page over the weekend his true motives in the last-minute edict to state liquor stores, ordering they replace their "closed for Presidents’ Day" signs with "Closed for Washington and Lincoln Day" signs on the national holiday observed Monday.

After many inquiries into why the change was necessary, Herbert wrote on Facebook: Today is Presidents Day and I will be honoring our former leaders who helped build America into the greatest nation on the planet. Yet, while I honor our past leadership, I remain hopeful that our current President is replaced soon by someone who better understands the principles that make our nation great. We need a leader in the White House who will take a page out of the Utah playbook and keep taxes low, foster pro-growth policies, and rein in out-of-control spending."

One poster reminded the governor that he was elected to represent all Utahns, not just the tea party.