A Valentine for Buttars
State Sen. Chris Buttars' political Tourettes must be contagious. Now, he's got Utah Bar officials doing it.Buttars, who is fighting for his political life, in large part because he has blurted out such memorable quips as "This baby is black,... . It's a dark, ugly thing," still apparently has powerful friends working to keep him in office. At the top of his BFF list is Senate President John Valentine, the man who would be governor.
According to the Tribune's Robert Gehrke, quoting the jabberings of the Bar Commission's Scott Sabey, the folks behind the curtain run things like this:
Valentine said he had "taken a political hit'' for stripping Buttars of his chairmanship in February, after the senator wrote a letter chastising a judge for a ruling against a friend and political ally.How did the Trib get this amazing exchange, you ask? A whistleblower? A leaked document? No. Two Trib editors happened to be attending the Judicial Council meeting (the media almost never covers the meetings) on another matter when Sabey decided to expose the Senate president's soiled undies.
The Senate president feared he could lose his leadership spot if he kicked Buttars off the committee, Sabey told the panel chaired by Supreme Court Justice Christine Durham and responsible for making policy for the judiciary.
Valentine feared that Sen. Mike Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, could beat him in a leadership election later this year if Valentine suffered any more political damage.
The bar association preferred to keep Valentine as Senate president, and was willing to give Valentine a pass on his prior commitment.
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