Budding lyricist Orrin Hatch — who also likes to present himself as a law-and-order conservative senator — has a well-earned reputation as the drug dealer's pal.

Orrin arranged leniency for his third convicted drug dealer. Hatch is modest about taking credit for his achievements, so here they are:

• Rapper and music producer John Edward Forte of the Fugees — 14-year sentence for smuggling $1.4 million in liquid cocaine commuted by President Bush this week with the encouragement of Hatch.

• Utah resident Cory Stringfellow — busted for selling drugs and then forging a passport to try to escape authorities. At Hatch's urging in 2005, President Clinton commutes Stringfellow's sentence.

• Grammy-winning record producer Dallas Austin is jailed in Dubai on drug charges in 2006. Hatch uses his clout as a U.S. senator to get him released.

The truth is that Orrin is just another groupie. But instead of offering sex to rockers, Hatch gives up his influence. In 2005, Carly Simon, a Forte supporter, serenaded Hatch in the front row of her Washington concert. Simon performed one of the senator's pathetic attempts at songwriting and referred to starry eyed Orrin as "the King of The Hill." It was a groupie's fantasy.

Read the details in Robert Gehrke's excellent story in today's Tribune.

*I left for vacation but this was too good not to blog.