Utah's senators cheer Brown win in Massachusetts

Utah's two senators cheered the victory of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts, saying his erasing Democrats' filibuster-proof Senate majority will force reworking health care reform — and may foreshadow big Republican gains in elections later this year.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, enjoyed seeing the seat held for 46 years by his late, liberal friend, Sen. Ted Kennedy, go to Brown, saying it "signals that liberal Democrats in Washington are out of step with the American people."

Hatch added that it shows that Americans "are increasingly angered by the majority party's arrogance of power and wanton disregard for the will of the American people with respect to health care reform and other issues confronting the nation."

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said Brown's win likely kills Democratic health care reform in its current form.

"If not kill it, it certainly will sidetrack it so that there can be a lot of changes made before it comes back to the Senate for a vote," Bennett said.

He said that "will consume a lot of activity and time. And activity and time tend to mitigate against the bill being passed in the long run."

Bennett predicted that Democratic leaders will try to find a way to having the Senate vote again on health care reform now that their party lost its filibuster-proof majority.

He said they may try to have the House pass the Senate version of the bill unchanged, or perhaps rush a vote on a House-Senate compromise before Brown can be seated.

"That will stir a tremendous amount of uproar around the country and hurt the Democrats even more as they go into the election in November," Bennett said.

"Scott Brown was a complete unknown as recently as 30 days ago," Bennett said. "For him to surge to the front, and then — in the onslaught of full campaigning by President Obama himself — go on to victory, has to be a statement of referendum against the Democratic agenda."

Massachusetts voters "certainly had enough publicity to tell them what you are doing will have a major impact on the health care debate in Washington," he said, "and they did it anyway."

Hatch said, "Brown's triumph also may be a harbinger of what is to come in this year's elections if elected officials in Washington don't set aside their far-left agenda and mend fences with mainstream America."

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