Utah's white and ugly thing
In case you've been too busy celebrating democracy the last few days to follow the news, Utah's dominant party seems to be out to prove it's a white and ugly thing. Not to mention vindictive and petty.A couple of moderate Republican lawmakers broke ranks to call for an ethics probe into party favorite Mark Walker's offering a lucrative job to his state Treasurer opponent.
SEE UPDATE....
Joined by some powerless but troublesome Democrats, the group also hinted at back room power plays at the GOP-controlled Legislature. A House Republican leader excoriated the wayward Republicans as "cancer."
On cue, it's leaked to the news media that one of the Republican renegades, Rep. Steve Mascaro, was involved in alledged lewd behavior at the Legislature.
Can it get uglier? Heck yeah. The party's irrepressible pariah, Sen. Chris Buttars, reemerged to erase any doubts that he is an arrogant ass. During a meeting with Mapleton city officials, Buttars, above, kept reminding them of the controversy that surrounded his describing a bill as "this baby is black . . . it's a dark and ugly thing."
Apparently, Buttars was making it clear to Mapleton officials that neither his racially charged comments or his attempts to intimidate a state judge on behalf of a developer friend (who is at war with Mapleton) could stop him from being re-elected to the Senate.
Says Mapleton Mayor Laurel Brady:
It ended with Senator Buttars making it clear to us that he is powerful; he could repeat the 'black baby' remark and that he was untouchable. He said, "If they wanted to get rid of me, they would have done it in the primaries, and they didn't. I am here to stay."It's gotten so bad that even Don Gayle, formerly KSL's voice of Utah's conscience, piled on, laying out the public's disgust with Utah politics point by point.
There was a time when political leaders listened to their constituents more than they listened to special-interest lobbyists. . . . . There was a time when decisions affecting the state and its people were discussed in open meetings and when the news media had access to legislators on all sides of every issue.With all the noise, it's surprising that Senate President John Valentine and House Speaker Greg Curtis haven't stepped up to assure voters the Legislature isn't run like a banana republic. Maybe they're saving it for Pioneer Day.
Sadly, those principles are ignored by leaders who claim to know what's best without the benefit of legislative debate or public discussion.No wonder voters are disillusioned. No wonder they stay away from the polls.
2 Comments:
Tribune columnists like Warchol and Walsh have a tough call to make. Normally, they would crucify a Mormon Republican for being accused of sexual harassment.
However, Walsh and Warchol have to consider that Mascaro is a "moderate" (read: liberal) Republican who supports higher taxes and opposes school choice. That's one reason to go easy on him.
Second, Mascaro is trying to implicate Greg Curtis in the Walker scandal. That's another reason to go easy on Mascaro.
However, the real tough call will be in October when Mascaro is running in the general election. Will Mascaro's usefulness to the Tribune be used up, allowing the Tribune to go after Mascaro to get the Democrat elected?
The current leadership of the Utah Republican party is as bad as Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall, and even more self-righteous. Trying to smear the TRIBUNE to cover it up won't work. I had to laugh at the "coincidence" of the fact that the leadership leaks a letter about Mascaro just after he had taken a stand they opposed. After all, the Repubs used a phony, trumped up intern scandal to try to bring down a president, why wouldn't it work for a lowly Utah rep.?
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