Per the Standard-Examiner: Name Calling at the Capitol

A glimpse into "sausage-making activities" within the Utah GOP legislative inner circle

The Standard-Examiner editorial board finally jumps aboard the bandwagon this morning, demonstrating that they, like we, are closely watching the spectacle surrounding this year's Utah State Treasurers' race, an election contest which has been considerably spiced up, by the sideshow which we've now taken to calling the Walker Bribery Probe.

This morning's strong Std-Ex editorial provides a tidy fact summary for those in the Std-Ex's general readership who were not heretofore aware of the story, and then goes on to focus further on the past week's "meltdown" by Rep. Stephen Urquhart, (R-St. George), during the past week on his blog:

Even more entertaining: Rep. Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George, chairman of the House Rules Committee and a candidate for vacated Senate District 29, used his personal blog to savage Reps. Hansen’s, Allen’s and Mascaro’s reputations within the House. Here’s what he wrote about them complaining that their legislation wasn’t getting out of the Rules Committee: “When Hansen, Allen and Mascaro complained that their legislation wasn’t moving, I candidly told them that they were perceived on both sides of the aisle to be grandstanding hacks who brought little of value to the process, and that the perception probably wasn’t helping their cause” (www.steveu.com/blog/).
If anyone ever tells you Utah politics are polite, point them in Urquhart’s direction — he’ll disabuse them of that notion in a hurry.

This morning's editorial was apparently drafted before the revelation of the latest plot twist, of course -- the rolling out of the neoCON slime machine -- in re GOP House Representative Mascaro. But that's OK. The Std-Ex editors can always catch up on the story here at WCF.

We welcome the Std-Ex editors to join us as we all sit back to watch this clownish sideshow from the "cheap seats" -- while certain blockheads in the Utah GOP continue the process of public pre-general election self-cannibalization.

The Std-Ex editors make a good point with this, we believe:

There’s that old saying about how watching laws get made is a little like watching the doings at a sausage-making business. Arguments over alleged ethics violations are the same thing, but nevertheless they give us an indication what sorts of people we routinely elect to powerful positions.

Special thanks to Rep. Urquhart, among others, for giving us a public glimpse of that.