Over the past few weeks, Hatch has sucked up to national conservative figures, mounted a desperate rehab effort to bolster what few conservative credentials he has left, and, according to my sources, used his incumbency machine to buy off erstwhile Tea Party leaders.

I have been told that local and state vendors, pollsters, and campaign literature printers in Utah have all been scared off doing any work for any potential Hatch challenger.

Utah Tea Party activists tell me they are scouting out other possibilities, but that the prospect of opposing the GOP establishment and Hatch’s machine are daunting.

It’s Chicago on the Wasatch Front.