Ever since Gov. Jon Huntsman aggressively started the ball rolling to abolish Utah's quirky club membership rules to get a drink, I wondered if the Guv had gotten some wink, nod or high sign from the LDS Church.

After all, no change in liquor laws will clear the Lege without the Mormon Church's stamp of approval. (There actually is a rubber stamp, right, with a little Angel Moroni on it that the church uses to approve legislation.)

Huntsman has already gotten the amount of alcohol in a drink increased from one ounce to 1.5 ounces. Now with his prodding, the Alcohol Control Board is considering eliminating the sham "drinking club memberships" needed to get a cocktail.

I figured Huntsman, with his experience as a foreign trade negotiator, had scoped out the terrain ahead before he launched his newest thrust to "normalize" Utah's liquor laws.

I cornered him after the monthly press conference on KUED-TV and asked the question: Did he discuss the club-elimination initiative with any church leaders?

Huntsman said:

There were no such conversations. No formal or informal conversations [with the church].

The drinking liberalization ideas came out his transition team report when he took office, he says:

I put them on our list of things to do while I was in office.