Republican Senator Orrin Hatch Songwriting Prowess: Eight Days of Hanukkah

In our continuing series on Republican Politicians who double as songwriters, starting with John Ashcroft & continuing with Orrin Hatch, we now return to the distinguished Mormon Republican Senator from Utah for his 2009 Hanukkah hit, Eight Days of Hannukah, sung by Rasheeda Azar, "a Syrian-American vocalist from Indiana ":

Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

From the New York Times:

Known around the Senate as a prolific writer of Christian hymns and patriotic melodies, Mr. Hatch, 75, said this was his first venture into Jewish music. It will not be his last.

“Anything I can do for the Jewish people, I will do,” Mr. Hatch said in an interview before heading to the Senate floor to debate an abortion amendment. “Mormons believe the Jewish people are the chosen people, just like the Old Testament says.”

In short, he loves the Jews. And based on an early sampling of listeners, the feeling could be mutual.

“Watching Orrin Hatch in the studio, I said to myself that nothing this great will ever happen to me again,” said Alana Newhouse, the editor-in-chief of Tablet.

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch Songwriting Prowess: Headed Home (for Senator Ted Kennedy)

In our continuing series on Republican Politicians who double as songwriters, Orrin Hatch wrote this song last year about Teddy Kennedy, who died on Tuesday. The Huffington Post pointed out that it was originally about Kennedy "heading home" to the Senate after his sickness, but it doubles perfectly as a eulogy, he's heading home to Kennedy heaven? We saw Ted Kennedy with our congresswoman Barbara Lee plug for Obama at a black church in Oakland, where he really roared - my comments on that were blogg'd here.