The people of Oregon owe Hatfield a lot, especially given what he did for them when he became chairman of the Senate appropriations committee in 1981. According to his obituary, he sent home at least $3 billion federal dollars.
Like Stevens, Hatfield was a player in political life for half a century -- as a state legislator, two-term governor, and five-term U.S. senator. Like Stevens, he was known as a moderate Republican with friends across the aisle. Like Stevens, he was a World War II veteran whose foreign policy views were shaped by war.
Unlike Stevens, Hatfield represented a state trending more and more Democratic as he grew older. If he was moderate by inclination, he learned it was in his interest to remain moderate. Unlike Stevens, he never developed close ties to the military, did not lard Oregon with defense spending, and became -- out of war-time experience -- something of a peacenik. Unlike Stevens, he opposed the Vietnam War, standing in opposition to powerful senators and a powerful president, Lyndon Johnson.
Both Stevens and Hatfield came under intense scrutiny for ethical lapses, although the consequences were far greater for Stevens than Hatfield. The cause was the same for both: They became too close to influential men of wealth. The tribulations Stevens endured because of his relationship with Veco's Bill Allen are known to every Alaskan. In the '80s, Hatfield's wife received $55,000 in real estate fees that became so controversial Hatfield wrote a $55,000 check to charity. In the '90s, he acknowledged accepting nearly $43,000 in unreported gifts and was rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee.
If there's a lesson here, it's that great men are not saints.
Hatfield retired after the 1996 election at age 74. According to his obituary, he told friends "He didn't want to be one of those doddering senators held up by aides."
-- Michael Carey
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