Sen. Orrin Hatch honors flag, nets endorsement

Sen. Orrin Hatch, the six-term senator seeking to avoid the same fate that befell colleague Bob Bennett in 2010, spent Tuesday securing an endorsement from a prominent media personality and proposing a constitutional amendment to protect the American flag.

Hatch's new endorsement comes from conservative talk show host Mark Levin. TheHill.com reports that when Hatch appeared on Levin's radio program Tuesday night, the host gushed, "It would be a sad place in the Senate if we knocked you off in the Republican system in Utah. ... (You'd be) a terrific elder statesman to a lot of these other young guys who I'm going to be pushing in these other states."

Earlier in the day Hatch joined with Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., in proposing a constitutional amendment (http://tiny.cc/k6lc7) that would permit Congress to outlaw any burning or other physical desecration of the American flag.

"This amendment gives Utahns and other Americans an opportunity to assert their rightful authority over the Constitution," Hatch said on his website. "The Supreme Court was wrong to say that flag desecration was protected speech, and the American people should be able to say so."

Congress last considered a constitutional amendment related to flag burning in 2006, when a proposed amendment fell one vote short in the Senate despite passing through the House with the requisite two-thirds vote.

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