Hatch, Kennedy made political theater as 'odd couple'

Ted Kennedy was red-faced and yelling, pounding his Senate desk. Orrin Hatch waved his finger disgustedly at him as he returned verbal fire about a GOP labor initiative.

Then time for debate expired. Kennedy and Hatch shook hands and exchanged jokes. Their laughter echoed as they walked out slapping each other on the back.

Such was a typical day in the life of Washington's odd couple. The press for decades watched closely as they argued, often compromised, and made many laws as the self-proclaimed liberal and conservative became the unexpected best of friends.

It ended when Kennedy died Tuesday night. But they often talked about how the friendship formed, the laws it helped create, and some unusual twists it took — including Hatch once chiding a state GOP convention for attacking Kennedy and Hatch becoming an informal spokesman and defender for Kennedy during a scandal.

Back in 1990, just after the yelling-then-laughing exchange in the Senate, both talked together to the Deseret News about their friendship that was then just gaining notice.

"One of my motivations for coming to the Senate was to fight Ted Kennedy," Hatch said at the time, noting they were antagonists for years. They said they were forced to change in 1981, when Hatch became chairman of the Senate Labor Committee — and Kennedy was its ranking Democrat.

"Even though I was chairman, Kennedy had a 9-7 ideological edge on votes because two Republicans kept voting with Democrats," Hatch said. So he was forced to work with Kennedy to pass anything.

And Kennedy said the two found they often wanted the same general end results, and that they actually admired each other and their families.

"We have a difference in terms of perhaps how we are going to achieve the objectives, but I don't really feel that I have a difference with Orrin in terms of what the objectives ought to be. If you build upon that kind of understanding and respect, you can get a lot of things done," Kennedy said.

And they started to do things together. For example on child care, Hatch had long supported giving only tax breaks to make it more affordable. Kennedy wanted direct government grants and oversight of child care centers. They finally folded features of both approaches into one bill, and passed it.

Hatch said Wednesday, after Kennedy's death, "When we did agree, everyone turned to get out of the way. They thought if Kennedy and Hatch can get it together, it must be good."