Salt Lake County Councilman Randy Horiuchi has backed off a proposal to give himself and the rest of the council a 130 percent raise — $35,000 to $85,000 — following the howling objections of voters. It makes you wonder how close the "Got Game" Democrat is to his constituents who are struggling through a recession that he pushed the pay boost as far as he did. Horiuchi explained that he just wanted to give folks better government:

I just want [council members] to be as good of elected officials as they can be.

But Republican County Councilman David Wilde, who apparently doesn't want to be as good as he can be, says Horiuchi's plan would unleash another plague upon the land: career politicians.

I don't like the idea of professional politicians. We have too many of them in D.C. We don't need them in Salt Lake County.