Salt Lake Crawler

Sen. Chris Buttars who has attained the status of a folk villain in gay rights circles, suddenly says he's OK with Salt Lake City's passing of gay-rights anti-discrimination ordinances. But he wants it to stop right there, buster.

"I've accepted they should be able to have those rights. Period. But if there are unintended consequences, we ought to address those."

Or, as he somewhat graphically explained to Fox 13:

"I don't mind gays but I don't want 'em stuffing it down my throat all the time — and certainly [not?] in my kids' face."

Now, Buttars and the other minions of She Who Must Be Obeyed* have to figure out how to build a moat around gay discrimination protections so as not to infect hetero-marriage and implode Western Civilization. Big job.

"Maybe we ought to have a statewide bill that allows those things — but that's all it allows. No creep."

The interior of Buttars' head must be a mess after his church actively supported the SLC gay protection ordinances. Remember, this is the guy who told a documentary filmmaker that same-sex families are "abomination combinations" and the biggest threat to American civilization.

We're moving towards a society with no morals... There's never been a nation survived that's done that. . . .

The West Jordan senator must long for the days when he took great pride in knocking down any and all gay rights legislative proposals. As he boasted to the filmmaker:

I've killed every [bill] that they brought for 8 years. . . . I'm the wall they hit.

*Eagle Forum President Gayle Ruzicka.

More trouble for trooper — The sad story of former Utah Highway Patrol trooper Fred Swain took another turn downward when he was arrested on suspicion of driving a semi under the influence. Swain was head of the UHP's DUI squad in 2006 before he drunkenly crashed his UHP squad car into a concrete barrier.

Open the door — The Legislature's ethics committee unanimously approved a bill that would set up an independent ethics commission. The five-member panel would sift through complaints behind closed doors, then send serious infractions on the House or Senate ethics committee for ultimate round filing. Utahns for Ethics in Government leader Kim Burningham was not satisfied with the bill: "We believe in a lot more openness."

Torture report — Attorney General Eric Holder says the ethics report on former Justice Department lawyers who authorized the use of torture should be ready at the end of the month. The findings are said to be harshly critical of Jay Bybee, BYU Law School grad and the former head White House counsel.

Tall-standing guy — Congressman Jason Chaffetz spoke against expanding domestic partner benefits for federal workers, fearing it would undermine traditional marriage. "I, for one, stand tall for traditional marriage. I think the American people stand tall for traditional marriage." The bill was approved anyway.

Joy in SLC's Gayborhood — After two years and $200,000, the unfortunately named gay bar Jam in the Marmalade likely will get a full-service liquor license thanks to the City Council changing its west Capital Hill zoning.

Was "Dishonesty and Deceit" taken?— Olympus High School alum, UofU dropout and "The Architect" of George W. Bush's two successful presidential bids, Karl Rove has titled his memoir, due out next spring, "Courage and Consequence."

All's fair — That sly dog Mitt Romney has purchased links in sponsored boxes on Google, meaning anyone who types in 2012 presidential rival Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's name could instead find themselves redirected to Romney's site.

Log Cabin Masochists — Gov. Gary Herbert partied at the Governor’s mansion with the Utah Log Cabin Republicans.  Actually, Herbert held an "informal" reception for the gay GOP group that is drafting a bill that would take Salt Lake City's prohibition job discrimination based on sexual orientation statewide. I'm sure all it would take is few bellinis to swing Gary over to supporting gay rights.

What's wrong with "weasels"? — In a DNews opinion column, John Florez, laments on the lack of support for ethics reform and refers to Legislators as "roaches." And he likens the opulent restored Capitol to a "roach motel." "Once in office, it's almost impossible to get rid of them. They keep building more barriers and finding more excuses to remain as permanent residents of the people's house."

Anti-abortion crusader Rep. Carl Wimmer finally may have a winner in a bill based on an incident in which a teen paid a thug to beat her into a miscarriage. The baby survived and the attacker was sentenced to jail time, but the woman herself could not be charged under Utah law.

Blogging Live From the Hill —

Wimmer wants to close that loophole.

"It was a travesty of justice. This girl was let go after committing a heinous crime. No one in their right mind thinks that is justice."

Some Legislators fear the law would be used against women who get medical abortions. Other lawmakers opposed the bill because it would not include provisions to charge the fetus's father who allegedly pressured the girl to get an abortion. The bill got some bipartisan support after Wimmer explained that existing laws cover that situation.

"Some people will never support this simply on philosophical grounds. But I'm pleased to get some bipartisan support."

Blogging Live From The Hill —

At the Ethics Committee, Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack read a communication from Governor's Office admitting that the Lt. Governor's  elections staff  is "frustrated" with getting a system in place to get immediate financial disclosure on line.

Gov. Gary Herbert maintains that immediate and complete disclosure of financials is the key to this particular ethics issue, not caps on contributions to candidates. Herbert, of course, recently pulled in a record $1 million at a sky's-the-limit influence auction, otherwise known as the Governor's Gala.

Lt. Gov. Greg Bell has his job cut out on this pulling off rapid online disclosure simply from a software compatibility standpoint. Herbert never came close to pulling it off when he was Lt. Governor. As Killpack sardonically joked:

"He says he has a commitment from them that they are going to get that fixed. That commitment has been there every since I got in the Legislature."