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 Weekend
Report
It was a terrific weekend to take a walk in the foothills with Hayduke
the dog and clear out the cobwebs. The wildflowers are blooming
in full glory. It’s greener than I ever remember. The catch basin
by my house has a pair of mallard ducks setting up housekeeping
and the quail are pairing up and nesting. Taking a break from the
routine of business and politics is a good way to stay fresh and
creative.
The Week Ahead
Nationally, the big showdown looms closer as skirmishing begins
on the Senate floor over judicial nomination filibusters. This fight
has significant ramifications not just for the future of the judicial
branch, including possible U.S. Supreme Court nominations, but also
for the 2006 congressional elections, as both sides maneuver to
seek advantage.
In Utah, state lawmakers will be very active
this week, convening task forces and interim committees on Tuesday
and Wednesday. On Tuesday, the tourism, tax reform and GRAMA task
forces meet, plus the usual Executive Appropriations and Legislative
Management committees. Wednesday, a full slate of interim committees
go to work. For times, places, and agendas, see the legislative
calendar
page. Click on the committee name and then on the agenda.
Enlibra Still Going
Strong
Remember Enlibra? This philosophy of environmental management hasn’t
gone away. In fact, some new tools have been developed for its use.
Enlibra and its eight principles were developed by former Utah Gov.
Mike Leavitt and the Western Governor’s Association. It is
a philosophy designed to help avoid and resolve environmental disputes
before they end up in litigation and intransigence on both sides.
The Salt Lake City-based Oquirrh
Institute has been keeping Enlibra alive, and the Enlibra philosophy
is still the official policy of the Western Governors Association
and the National Governors Association. Oquirrh is a think tank
started by Leavitt when he was still governor.
The big federal transportation funding bill
now before Congress contains language encouraging government entities
to use the Enlibra principles in dealing with environmental matters.
The Oquirrh Institute has produced a “toolkit” that uses case studies
and background information to illustrate how the eight principles
can be used in practical ways. The think tank recently produced
a CD containing a range of Enlibra training materials to help environmental
professionals. The Oquirrh Institute also uses the Enlibra principles
in its own environmental
programs.
Although Leavitt, now HHS secretary, is no
longer affiliated with the Oquirrh Institute, he continues to use
the principles. They have applicability broader than the environmental
arena, and they often pop up in Leavitt speeches and in his management
directives. The eight principles are: 1. Reward Results, Nor Programs;
2. National Standards, Neighborhood Solutions; 3. Solutions Transcend
Political Boundaries; 4. Collaboration, not Polarization; 5. Markets
before Mandates; 6. Science for Facts, Process for Priorities; 7.
Recognition of Costs and Benefits; and 8. Change a Heart, Change
a Nation.
National Politics
Interesting surveys show major differences between affluent Republicans
and low-income Republicans, says New York Times columnist
David
Brooks and GOP leaders have not figured out how to bring
them together.
Democratic and GOP
Perspectives
(Note: The following three items, two by Democrats and one by a
Republican, were submitted recently to UPD.)
United, Organized and Passionate
Mr. Webb: While I can’t say I’m very impressed by the snark in your
post (apparently Utah Republicans never, ever bicker), Democracy
for Utah is always glad to pick up more readers at our blog.
Regarding the substance of your post, the state Democratic Party
is at the same place as the national party after the 2004 primaries.
Those of us who were Dean (or Clark or Edwards or Kucinich) supporters
didn’t get the candidate we wanted. We moped about it for a bit,
then we got behind our party’s nominee 100%.
As the “Smurfs” put it in their humorous
article about the state chair election, “There was so much wonderful
outreach, communication, grassroots, and PASSION shown by not only
the candidates, but by the delegates and Democrats statewide.” And
it’s true -- Utah Democrats are more organized and passionate than
we’ve been in a long time. No one is going to take their ball and
go home. All of us at Democracy for Utah look forward to working
with the new party leadership to build on the gains we made in 2004
and keep turning Utah blue (or at least a better shade of purple).
-- Carrie Ulrich, Co-chair, Democracy for Utah
A Vote for Jim Perry
From Bill S. Lee, responding to a Quote of the Day featuring
Cedar Hills Council member Jim Perry urging recognition of
minority rights in Cedar Hills: “I don't know Jim Perry or of what
political persuasion he is, but: Jim Perry please run for either
the state Senate or House. Then when you have impressed them with
your vision on the above matter run for national office, and don't
forget to visit as many Ward houses and churches across this country
as you can in the process. At the very least someone get this quote
into the Deseret Morning News.”
Utah Demos and National Demos
By Gordon S. Jones
Democrats in Utah and other western states perennially complain
that they are miscast as clones of the national Democratic Party.
Sure, they admit, national Democrats are liberal on social and economic
issues, but we’re not like that. We are not pro-abortion, not bent
on a radical promotion of the homosexual agenda, and we’re actually
more fiscally conservative even than Republicans.
Unfortunately, reality obtrudes, as it did
with some stories surrounding the Utah State Democratic Convention
last weekend.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid
was the featured speaker at the “How the West Will Be Won” barbecue
Friday night. I have not been able to find an actual transcript
of the speech, but the news stories paraphrase Reid as saying Democratic
“party leaders need to be more aggressive, challenging conservative
characterizations of liberals as purveyors of abortion, gay marriage
and secularism.” This is the ritual disclaimer mentioned above.
In the case of Reid, Senator from an adjoining state, and (as the
news stories always mention) the highest-ranking Mormon in the Democratic
Party, it might claim even more legitimacy, except…
Except for obtruding reality. In this case,
Reid’s comments to a high school civics class in Las Vegas earlier
in the day.
A fair amount of ink, photons, and electrons
has been expended over Reid’s characterization of President George
W. Bush as “a loser” and “a bad president,” but less (and none that
I’ve seen in Utah) over his attack on the qualifications of the
judicial nominees being filibustered in the U.S. Senate at the direction
of Harry Reid.
Again, let’s bypass Reid’s rhetorical excesses
(“they’re bad people,” Texas Supreme Court Justice Patricia Owen
is “the worst of the worst,” and California Supreme Court Justice
Janice Rogers Brown “wants to take us back to the Civil War days”)
and focus on the one substantive criticism he makes of these nominees:
(quoting the Las Vegas Review Journal paraphrase again) “some [of
the nominees] were opposed to the 1973 Roe v. Wade case legalizing
abortion.” *
So there you have it. Harry Reid asks us
non-Democrat Utahns to get past the identification of Democrats
with the abortion issue just three hours after he has cited it as
the reason for his obstruction of President Bush’s judicial nominees.
There is no record of any of the 900 Democrats
in the Salt Lake Marriott Center pointing out that Senator Reid’s
rhetoric can do nothing but reinforce our perception that despite
the protestations of local Democrats, the reality is that Democratic
Party is a party whose policies and values are unacceptable to a
substantial majority of Utahns, to a slightly smaller majority of
Westerners, and to a significant (in electoral terms) majority of
Americans in general.
When even a Mormon from Nevada feels compelled
to apply the pro-abortion litmus test, Democrats have little prospect
of convincing us that they are just like Republicans, but with softer
hearts.
* Reid did make a second “substantive” point,
accusing some of the nominees of (quoting the LVRJ) “trying to dismantle
government programs like Social Security.” Possibly some of the
“bad” judges (for whom Harry Reid voted when they were nominated
to the federal district courts by the way) have had occasion to
rule in cases involving Social Security, but it seems unlikely,
and even more unlikely that any “dismantling” of Social Security
could have been at issue. More likely, Senator Reid’s tongue outran
his sense, as it did a few weeks ago when he criticized Associate
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s legal writing and then was
unable to produce any creditable example of such bad writing.
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