“I’ll stand up for the tea party every time,” Hatch said. “These people are angry — justifiably angry. They’re taking a part in the process. They’re making a difference.”

Hatch’s comments, made to reporters just off the Senate floor, come on the heels of The Washington Post tagging Hatch as one of five Republican senators who in 2012 could fall victim to the tea party, which helped take out his Utah Republican colleague, Bob Bennett, earlier this year at the state GOP convention…

“In all honesty, they deserve a lot of credit — not a lot of scorch and blame,” Hatch said. “And if the Democrats do that, they’re going to get their heads handed to them.”