Making Nice
You never know how conservative state lawmakers will receive U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, Utah's lone Democrat in Congress.
It's hard to be gracious when all your efforts to shove the guy out of office have failed.
In an annual tradition followed by members of Utah's delegation, Matheson made the rounds of Capitol Hill Thursday, touting his efforts to remove a pile of uranium tailings from the banks of the Colorado River and block nuclear weapons testing in Nevada. Most years, state lawmakers politely listen (even if it is with a deliberately blank look on their faces and a phone at their ears) and let him slip away after one softball question from a dutiful Democratic lawmaker.
This year, the reception was predictably polite, if tepid. Democrats in the Senate stood for the Congressman; Republicans stayed seated. Republican Sen. Al Mansell, from Sandy, and Republican Sen. Howard Stephenson, from Draper, stood up and had their own conversation during most of Matheson's speech. Though Sen. Darin Peterson, R-Nephi, complimented Matheson and his staff for being so willing to respond to his calls for federal help.
House members were only slightly warmer: GOP representatives stood along with their Democratic colleagues when Matheson entered the room. They clapped at news Matheson had named his newborn son after his father, Scott.
But one Republican lawmaker from Utah County turned and mouthed "Wah-wah-wah" to her conservative Weber County colleague at the end of Matheson's speech.
In a strange foreshadowing of potential debates to come, Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, asked Matheson about states' rights, immigration reform and if the federal government would reimburse the state for the pricey legal tab over Legacy Highway. Christensen is rumored as a likely challenger for the three-term Congressman's 2nd Congressional District seat.
-- Rebecca Walsh and Matt Canham
It's hard to be gracious when all your efforts to shove the guy out of office have failed.
In an annual tradition followed by members of Utah's delegation, Matheson made the rounds of Capitol Hill Thursday, touting his efforts to remove a pile of uranium tailings from the banks of the Colorado River and block nuclear weapons testing in Nevada. Most years, state lawmakers politely listen (even if it is with a deliberately blank look on their faces and a phone at their ears) and let him slip away after one softball question from a dutiful Democratic lawmaker.
This year, the reception was predictably polite, if tepid. Democrats in the Senate stood for the Congressman; Republicans stayed seated. Republican Sen. Al Mansell, from Sandy, and Republican Sen. Howard Stephenson, from Draper, stood up and had their own conversation during most of Matheson's speech. Though Sen. Darin Peterson, R-Nephi, complimented Matheson and his staff for being so willing to respond to his calls for federal help.
House members were only slightly warmer: GOP representatives stood along with their Democratic colleagues when Matheson entered the room. They clapped at news Matheson had named his newborn son after his father, Scott.
But one Republican lawmaker from Utah County turned and mouthed "Wah-wah-wah" to her conservative Weber County colleague at the end of Matheson's speech.
In a strange foreshadowing of potential debates to come, Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, asked Matheson about states' rights, immigration reform and if the federal government would reimburse the state for the pricey legal tab over Legacy Highway. Christensen is rumored as a likely challenger for the three-term Congressman's 2nd Congressional District seat.
-- Rebecca Walsh and Matt Canham
1 Comments:
The Republican lawmaker from Utah County that is referred to in this bolg must be real amused with herself, but then idiots usually are. Nobody else finds them amusing so they have to amuse themselves. Wah, wah, wah.
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