By: Get Down Sit On A Bench
Wow, Did anyone see the ABC4 News at Ten? This is a juicy one that you need to see about the Great Brad Dee.
Here is the web page for it:
• Utah legislator files criminal complaint against House Majority WhipHere is the video:
Here are the Facebook pages:
• Bill Hansen, - Facebook WallThoughtful and temperate reader comments are invited, as always.
• Tell (Governor Herbert), to keep his paws off Our Pensions!
Update 4/18/2010 7:21 a.m.: The Standard-Examiner is all over this story too:
• Hansen files criminal complaint against Dee
19 comments:
Get Down:
Since this is a criminal complaint, the bar for establishing guilt is set high. So far, it seems the only evidence is Rep. Hansen's notes, which he says he made at the time, and his testimony about what Dee said to him. Dee says he didn't say it. Unless someone else overheard the conversation, or Dee was foolish enough to make a threat via email or by note, or Dee contacted someone in County government to pressure Rep. Hansen's brother, and that person is willing to so testify, I'm hard put to see how the matter can be proved sufficiently to result in a conviction.
Actually, Curm, you mistake the value of Rep. Hansen's notebook evidence.
The best evidence is Rep. Hansen's testimony. His contemporaneously compiled notes merely provide corroboration to his testimony, in an evidentiary sense.
My take?
This is a blockbuster story.
More advice:
Don't be a wimp!
I support Neil Hansen in his speaking out about this incident.
I think that Brad Dee would not have moved into the position he has without playing a lot of political games which would also include getting to be the Human Resource Director for Weber County.
Unfortunately he has probably become infected with the GOP virus known as 'Insider'.
I am always amazed at the warping that goes on to a long-time politician's concept of what is ethically right and what is morally wrong.
Especially a politician who has been a member of the controlling party for many years who has gone up through the ranks of their party like Brad Dee.
And this is especially true if they have been on the receiving end by being on salary and retirement funding by their constituents because they tend to start considering those funds as their divine right.
And when anyone gets that concept of a 'divine right' they begin to consider themselves godlike and omnipotent.
That is a disease that infects Washington as well as Utah and Weber County politicians.
If Brad Dee were my friend or client I would advise him to apologize and admit that he had been out of line with him comments.
I do not blame Neil Hansen for having had enough of jabs from members of the Utah legislature.
I consider it criminal that he has to get someone else in the House to propose his legislation to even get a vote on it.
Politics has always had a certain smell but Utah politics smell like a barnyard that needs cleaning.
To me, it seems there has always been an odoriferous clique calling the shots in the Utah Legislature
I thought when Curtis Bramble and his cohorts left that things would get better. No such luck.
Hope does spring eternal especially since the snow has melted.
Curm,
On the surface you may feel that this is a he said/she said against another.
But the truth is the truth and the truth will come out on this one. I know that Hansen will have all the facts and the truth on his side or he would not file the charges. That would just be stupid. So in the Coming weeks we will watch Dee backtrack as he has already done. When Hansen had his press conference about the Garn hot tubing, He told a little about the Dee Threat and Dee at that time said no such conversation took place. see link
Ogden Dem calls for speaker to resign
Now Brad is saying that a conversation did take place but no threat was mentioned. Well There you have it. Dee is a big liar. Here is the proof in the 4news store towards the end.
Later, Dee confirmed he did have a conversation with Hansen, but denies threatening Hansen's brother.
"Brad Dee, when not in the legislature, is the Weber County Human Services Director."
Intriguing.
Is Brad Dee another Utah legislator with a still unrevealed "Hatch Act Problem?"
I'll call the Office of Special Counsel on Monday morning to find out, and report back.
I'm with Mr. Curmudgeon on this one. Hansen is gonna have to cough up the goods before he will get to first base with this criminal filing. Ya gotta love Neil for having the guts and the integrity to go against the old boy's club rules and point out the dog crap on the pretty green lawn when he sees it.
Neil Hansen is a good hearted fellow with courage. He lacks some sophistication, however. It seems unlikely his notes will carry the day. But it does cast Brad Dee for the slime bag that I suspect he truly is.
Speaking of sophistication, consider taking the following test.
Sue Wilkerson Real Estate Appraisal School Final Exam
Danny-
Always distrust the guy who is the slickest with the so-called sophistication-
Off-topic:
In last weekend's open topic thread, Curmudgeon and I had a little argument over whether there's too little discussion of local issues on the Standard-Examiner blogs. This comment is a follow-up.
First, I note that as of this morning, the ten most recent S-E blog posts include 6 on national politics, two on state politics, one on Mormon history, and one on a local issue (the Ogden School District's ban of social networking between teachers and students).
Second, I happened to see Charlie Trentelman at the Nature Center Earth Day celebration yesterday, so I asked him why he blogs mostly about national issues. He explained that blogging isn't a required part of his job, and he doesn't get paid any extra for it (or relieved of any of his other duties), but the management does "encourage" it. Under these circumstances, he writes about whatever's easiest for him, that that's whatever the rest of the media are talking about. (I should note that Trentelman, as a matter of principle, avoids reading Weber County Forum.)
Finally, I notice that in today's S-E print edition there's one editorial and three opinion columns, and all four are about national politics. I don't want to make too much out of such a small sample, but I find it interesting that even in the print edition, where local stuff dominates the news coverage, the opinions still tend to gravitate more toward national issues.
Dan:
Not to touch off another long discussion on this off-topic topic, but I'd note that Mr. Trentelman simply corroborated what I'd noted earlier about the SE blogs: they reflect the personal interests of the staffers doing them, not the paper's news policy or editorial policy,and the topics are wholly unassigned. If Mr. Trentelman feels some morning like blogging on a local topic [and sometimes he has], I presume he will. Ditto the others. To take the paper to task for the personal [and uncompensated] blog musings of staffers indulging their own personal interests, hobby horses, or reactions-of-the-moment to news stories [of whatever focus] seemed to me then, seems to me now, unjustified.
The SE has an obligation to its readers to cover local matters in its news columns and on its editorial pages. And we both agree it has not consistently done on those pages the job it should have done and should be doing and that its readers ought to expect.
Curm: I wasn't trying to set off another long discussion, but if you're going to play the game of using Trentelman's comment to "corroborate" your point of view, then I'll point out the following:
* According to Trentelman, it is a matter of policy that the S-E management merely encourages its staff to blog, regardless of what they blog about. My opinion (which you needn't share) is that the management should "encourage" its staff to blog about local stuff, rather than merely adding to the nationwide echo chamber. Apparently there is little or no such encouragement.
* It is also a matter of policy that the S-E publishes these blogs on its official web site and even highlights them on its home page. Therefore the management is ultimately responsible for their content. (If Trentelman were writing a personal blog, entirely on his own time and published on an unaffiliated site, then it would be different.)
* Finally, even if we leave the management totally out of it, I think it's entirely fair to take a professional journalist to task for his poor choice of subject matter. A professional journalist should strive to contribute new information and ideas, not merely to echo what a hundred other writers are saying.
So, some political strong-arming has come to light,
In national politics this is often followed by, about three years later, an accident on the part of the accuser.
Small pane crash, skiing accident,... etc.
And, not just in the movies are snitches dealt with harshly.
I believe Neil Hansen, because I know for a fact that in Big Business-Big Politics, this sort of "I can ruin you with a phone call", happens on a daily basis.
The difference is that Neil, rather than roll over, has outed the thug.
Dangerous times.
On another note: the accused is using the Utah Mormon stand-by alibi "spirit of contention" to attempt to smear the accuser and take the heat off of himself.
Its "contentiousness" if you disagree strenuously with a holder of the Michaelzdick Priesthood. Its "Patriotism" if a Michaelzdick Priesthood holder disagrees strenuously with a non Mormon on matters political.
Unless it is writing, or electronically stored, this will come to nothing but Dee's operatives trying to ruin Neil.
Watch for it.
Steve,
You are right on the money and Isn't interesting that Hansen Said the incident did happen and yet if Dee is dening it. What was the purpuse of the conversation in the first place? Why would Dee apporch Hansen if it were not to threaten his brother? Why hasn't that question been asked of Brad Dee? I therefore
Believe that Hansen is telling the truth and brad is lying. You can allways tell who is lying because they will allways try to deverert to other issues.
Come on Brad tell us the truth and quit your lying.
SMC:
I suspect Rep. Dee has been taken up to some high place and shown the Kingdom of the Governorship of Utah, and it was pleasing in his sight. I suspect he's charted out a path that he hopes will carry him to the governor's chair down the road. That would explain his lurch to the right on school vouchers. That would explain his lurch to the right on ethics reform. And that would explain his prompt attempts to squelch those daring to say Dee Unapproved Things about him on line or elsewhere, by whatever means he can.
Too often in public life, metastasizing ambition eclipses ethical considerations and relegates "the public good" to a priority well below "what's good for my career." I suspect we've been seeing that process going on for a while now in Rep. Dee.
I doubt, absent other evidence coming to light which we don't yet know about, that Hansen's allegations will result in charges being filed since prosecutors are reluctant to do that if they doubt they have a win-able case. I imagine one reason Rep. Hansen made his allegations public is to in part inoculate his relative from ham-fisted retaliation by Dee. If, for example, Hansen's brother's job evaluations should suddenly shift from having been good to unsatisfactory, or if his department unexpectedly decides it must downsize and his job is the one targeted, the press and everyone else will immediately begin searching for Dee's fingerprints on those happenings. So I think I can see why Hansen went public, breaking the legislators' usual vow of silence regarding each other's ethics.
This also provides a good illustration of what a travesty the legislature's just completed "ethics reform law" [politely so called] really is. If Hansen had filed this as an ethics complaint, he would not have been allowed to tell anyone he'd filed it, the committee considering it would not have been allowed to let anyone know it had been filed, and if it had recommended some action [very unlikely], the people it would have reported to would be the legislative majority of which Dee is a leader. Some reform. It's a joke.
So Hansen, if he wanted to raise the matter in a public way at all, had little option but to go the route he did. He'd have been a damn fool to go the Majority's just-approved ethics reform [politely so called] route.
[Let me add that I have not spoken to Rep. Hansen about any of this or any of his staff or family. Just my surmising on a warm Spring morning, which has provided yet another reason to delay mowing the lawn for the first time this season. I treasure such reasons.]
"I imagine one reason Rep. Hansen made his allegations public is to in part inoculate his relative from ham-fisted retaliation by Dee."
Exactly.
I believe that Neil did what Neil did because he is an honest, sincere, law abiding man who respects his constituents and his oath of office, and truly follows the tenants of his religious faith - unlike the lurking leaders of the state GOP who hide behind that same "faith" all wrapped in their cloaks of self righteousness.
Ozboy,
You just brought a issue to light that if Rep. Dee is as good a person as Rep. Hansen, he would have not given a hot tubing Garn a standing ovation. This just shows how all these guys are in the same hot tub together. As Nixon would put to blow the heat off himself, he said, let them wallor in Watergate.
Rep. Dee also said he is not going to play this game? Just what game is this, that he is talking about. I would like him to put both fingers out and say I am not a crook!
Rep. Dee if this game is to end then tell the truth.
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