For all the pride Utahns like to take in rejecting dirty politics, things can sure get funky in the Beehive.

Take the curious story the Deseret News broke about a dispute between state Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, and a fired waiter who is also a paroled kidnapper.

Former waiter Christopher Gardner told the DNews that McCoy was pressuring him to unload some dirt on Sen. Chris Buttars. Gardner says he was encouraged to spill his guts to the Tribune. (The Tribune politics desk checked out Gardner's story, but decided — at least at that point — it was unworthy of an article.)

Gardner took his story to K-TALK radio, where he claimed that McCoy, above, got him fired because he wouldn't spew slime on up-for-election Republican Buttars. McCoy flat out denies it.

Meanwhile, Salt Lake County Republican chairman James Evans has slimily been shopping the McCoy-as-dirt-dealer story to local news media. Says the DNews:

Evans told the Deseret News that Gardner's story seems to have some legs, since Gardner, a parolee who could have a lot to lose making accusations against a sitting state senator, went to the Attorney General's Office to make a complaint against McCoy. it.

What is sad about this kind of muck flinging is that when the public only gets salacious fragments, it tends to fill in the blanks in the worst possible way. For instance, the DNews nonchalantly reports:

Gardner ... said he knew Buttars from the seven years Gardner was in the Boys Ranch, where Buttars was the long-time director until he retired several years ago. McCoy said Gardner then ticked of a number of bad things that alleged happened during his time there. The Boys Ranch is a private institution that provides help and education for troubled teenage boys.

OMG!, right? If you've got any kind of imagination at all, you're coming up with some pretty nasty images. Save it for the Law and Order: SVU teleplay you've been working on — Gardner's story just isn't that good.

Buttars has done enough questionable stuff without his enemies having to make it up.