All My Gettings

As most of you know, I have no love for Sen. Chris Buttars, who recently won re-election for reasons I have yet to fully understand. You might call me a lousy liberal who just wants to crucify this man for his backwards, stupid, bumbling word choices. However, I'd like to hope that a recent vote in the Utah State Senate highlights how absurd this man's view of government is.

Robert Hilder was up for appointment to Utah's court of appeals. He had some of the highest marks on jury and lawyer surveys of any judge in the state. And he was rejected by the senate. It seems like the reason behind this was a ruling a few years back where you allowed the University of Utah to forbid concealed weapons. This is, of course, an affront to gun rights advocates who find it necessary to attend SOC 1100 packing heat.

Some of the concerns of Sen. Buttars, though, are more fundamental. He claims there should only be one "sovereign" in the state: the Legislature. Wait a minute...checks and balances? Judicial review? Maybe the Leg is just good enough in Utah that they don't need anyone to tell them what they did is unconstitutional or just plain wrong.

During the hearings, Buttars also said, "I've been on this committee for six years. I have never received, in all of the hearings, the e-mail that I've received for this case - well over 1,000. What's fascinating, is you can divide these among citizens who say no, and judges and lawyers who say yes. And, I'll tell you something else, if I get any issue and there's 1,000 lawyers on this side, and 1,000 citizens on the other side - I'm going to go with the citizens."

So, lawyers are no longer citizens, it seems. Also, heaven forbid that you listen to people who may have actually worked with the judge, or have some sort of informed opinion about whether or not he can do the job well. I just...don't understand Buttars' political viewpoint. At all.

In other, slightly depressing Utah government news, Margaret Dayton was appointed to head up the Senate Rules Committee, the one that decides if bills are passed on to vote. Why is this possibly a bad option? Because Sen. Dayton, you may not remember, is the one who raised questions about the "international" nature of the IB program in Utah high schools.

Sometimes, I think it'd be interesting to live in a state where rabid conservatism isn't seen as a step in the right direction. Maybe, though, just maybe, the probate bill will pass and gay couples in Utah will have a few rights. I'm not holding my breath on that one, though.