Standard-Examiner: New Concerns Arise Over Government Records Access Changes

Additional SE revelations concerning wet-behind-the-ears freshman House Rep. Dixon Pitcher's disconcerting initiation into the flim-flam political practices of the most dysfunctional legislative body in the land

In the wake of last night's reader comment, wherein gentle Curmudgeon pointed out that the second vote on HB477 had reduced House support from the original 61 (veto proof) votes to just 42 (non-veto proof) votes on final passage Friday, Standard-Examiner reporter Loretta Park expands on this story angle and delivers a whole flurry of interesting comments by freshman House District 10 Representative Dixon Pitcher, who forthrightly admits that he was initially hoodwinked by an inaccurate information poop sheet, which was apparently distributed on the floor of the House by the GRAMA-gutting bill's supporters and/or sponsors just minutes before the first House vote. Here's one example:

"I voted for it based on incorrect information that was given to (legislators)," he said Wednesday as he pointed to a blue paper that highlighted problems with the current Government Records Access Management Act.

Read the amazing (and vaguely amusing) SE story here, which, among other things, contains additional revelations concerning the wet-behind-the-ears Rep. Pitcher's disconcerting initiation into the flim-flam political practices of the most dysfunctional legislative body in the land:

• New concerns arise over government records access changes

Adding further humorous interest to this story is our arithmetic-challenged Governor Herbert's steadfast contemporaneous statement that a "gubernatiorual veto would have been overriden anyway," even though that statement is demonstrated to be preposterous, by anyone who can do the basic calculations (like the Salt Lake Tribune's Robert Gehrke, for instance):

• Herbert: Veto of records bill wouldn’t have stood

Adding further to the black comedy relief is Senate President Waddoups' surprising apology for ramming this admittedly-flawed bill through both bodies of the Utah legislature without even the slightest hint of public discussion, notwithstanding the fact that he was frankly and even gleefully confessing only days ago that this was exactly his original strategy and intention.

This whole fiasco will definitely be fun to watch, as our Keystone Kops-style legislature struggles to cover their ass, and scrambles to unwind this comedy of errors (and web of outright lies) within the next ninety days.

And speaking of the "comedic" aspects of this story... It "really only hurts when we laugh," of course:

Ha. Ha. Ha. OUCH!