GOP Senator Orrin Hatch, possible Supreme Court nominee, gets drug smuggler off the hook

As a follow-up to what Chris wrote below, I just couldn't pass this one up.

This is what GOP family values have come to. We now have self-proclaimed religious conservative Senators (yes, I know he's a Mormon - and he still plays the religious conservative card just like the fundamentalists) using political pressure to get drug smugglers off the hook.

Oh, but it gets better. Hatch has a monetary interest in getting the guy off the hook, to the tune of $40,000 a year. So here are my questions:

1. Why would a religious conservative Republican, with aspirations to the Supreme Court, intervene to help get a drug smuggler off the hook?

2. Was this pay-back for Hatch's $40,000 pay off?

3. Was Hatch blackmailed - meaning, was the Senator's $40,000 pay off a backdoor contribution or some other illegal money deal, and was Hatch forced to help the drug smuggler lest his illegal contributions be revealed?

4. Where does the drug smuggler get off claiming that he had no idea he was breaking the law? He was bringing cocaine and Ecstasy into a foreign country. What part of possessing those drugs and then using an airplane to smuggle them into a foreign country didn't cross his mind as being illegal? And why would Hatch defend someone like this?

5. Is the guy Hatch got off going to face charges in the US? US authorities now know for a fact that the guy possessed illegal drugs in the United States (before getting on the plane). He seemingly intentionally transported those drugs through US customs, onto an airline, and through international air space. And none of that is a crime under US law? Or since this is Orrin Hatch's drug buddy, does that mean George Bush's Justice Department now won't investigate?

6. Would Orrin Hatch advocate we set all drug smugglers, who illegally transport drugs into the US, free provided they say they didn't mean to break the law?

And this guy wants to get on the US Supreme Court?