Hatch takes hybrid Hummer on wild ride

Sen. Orrin Hatch was trying to promote how Provo-based Raser Technologies converted a gas-guzzling Hummer into a 100 mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrid vehicle. But a Washington Post columnist focused instead on how the 75-year-old senator ended up going on his own version of "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride."

Columnist Dana Milbank wrote about a news conference Wednesday near the Capitol, where Hatch was trying to drive the hybrid Hummer H3. Milbank wrote the following:

"How do you start this baby?" Hatch asked the executives who built the 100 mile-per-gallon SUV.

"It's started," an official told Hatch.

"It's already on?" Hatch asked, surprised. "Heh, heh."

"Put your foot on the brake, then put it in drive," the official said. Nothing happened. "Is your foot on the brake? You have to have your foot on the brake?

"I think I've got it on," the senator replied.

"Nope," the executive said, pointing out the brake pedal. "There we go."

"No wonder," Hatch said. "I had it on the gas."

Oh, dear.

With a whine and a lurch, the Hummer began to accelerate, and for a few terrifying moments, Hatch was in control of the bright-red, 5,000-pound truck. Well, not entirely in control. "All I've got to do is smash that car, I'll tell ya," he said of a vehicle in his path. The questions he asked were unsettling: "Squeeze that button? … Do I park it this way? … I'm going to miss the curb? … Is there a reverse?"

Spotting a Capitol Police car, he speculated, "They're probably looking at me." Eyeing some photographers near the car, Hatch allowed that he was "a little bit concerned" for their safety. When one got too close, Hatch muttered: "That guy's really got some guts to stand there."

Milbank wrote that after Hatch finished his test drive, an official asked him to take another spin because photographers wanted another shot. He wrote that Hatch struggled to find reverse, and when his cell phone rang, he merely said, "I think we better leave it here."

Milbank concluded, "As a Hummer driver, Hatch is one heck of a senator."

Hatch, R-Utah, used the news conference and test drive to warn that a General Motors restructuring plan would sell off the Hummer brand to China.

"Needless to say, the technology and the plug-in hybrid H3 would go with it," he warned. "It is now up to President Obama and his auto task force to make use of the resources Congress has given them to ensure that America does not sell away our leadership" in such hybrid technology.

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