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The Week Ahead
Gov. Jon Huntsman must sign or veto all bills passed in the 2007 Legislature by Tuesday at midnight. … The big Downtown Rising initiative will be launched on Wednesday, 9 a.m., at the Marriott Hotel, 220 S. State. A press conference will follow at Gallivan Plaza at 10:30. … The day-long Utah Economic Summit will be held at Grand American Hotel on Thursday. Click here for more info. … See the Utah Policy Daily calendar for the rest of the week’s political events.
Monday Profile
Dan Eastman: Quiet Persuasion in the Senate
By GM Jarrard
 His neighbors razzed him. His kids’ friends hounded them at school. And comedian Pat Paulsen’s “close, personal friend” laughed all the way to the bank.
In the late 1980s, Dan Eastman grew a small, Bountiful auto dealership into Utah’s premier Jeep dealership, thanks in part to an ongoing TV and radio campaign featuring the deadpan stand-up comic made famous on the ‘60s Smothers Brothers show.
The line would go something like, “Hi, Pat Paulsen here for my close, personal friend, Dan Eastman, who would have been here himself except I asked him to rotate my tires, and he drove my car around the block. That’s Dan for you; he’s not real bright, but he does give good service.” Paulsen would get the laugh, and Eastman would get the business.
Eastman’s TV campaign helped build name ID for the car business, and when it came time to run for public office, it didn’t hurt either. Now a Utah state senator and Majority Whip, Eastman does most of his work quietly behind the scenes, pushing legislation and bringing people together. Possessing a dry wit of his own, the 61-year-old lawmaker puts all kinds of political odd couples together and brings about agreement where others fail. He’s not the arm-twisting type; it’s something he learned years ago doing car deals. And he’s good at it.
That must be why his GOP colleagues re-elected him to his leadership post unopposed. He first won his state Senate seat outright in 2000 after being appointed to the slot and ran again successfully in 2004. As he describes it, his political career began long, long ago in a city not too far away.
“It was junior high, 7th-grade in fact, right here in Bountiful that I ran for 7th-grade class president. And lost. Next year, I learned my lesson and was elected 8th-grade class president. After that, I helped other friends win their races,” Eastman explained.
One of those friends was Mike Leavitt, a young insurance executive Eastman met in Cedar City while he was in the banking business. They worked together in their local LDS ward and became fast friends and have remained so for more than three decades. When Leavitt decided to run for public office himself after years running the campaigns of others, Eastman was by his side, helping raise money and garner support. (Read entire story)
Washington Watch
Loophole Benefited Matheson?
According to analysis, "Rep. Steny Hoyer, an aggressive fundraiser for the successful 2006 campaign for Democrats to take control of the House," exploited a "legal loophole" to raise nearly $1 million for Democratic congressional candidates, including Rep. Jim Matheson, "who collected $72,250 through Hoyer's bundling efforts and another $10,000 directly from the leadership PAC. Matheson was a potentially endangered incumbent in a Republican-leaning district" (The Center for Public Integrity); conservative columnist Jayme P. Evans praises Matheson for being "one of the few Democrats left in Congress willing to regularly buck his party on matters of fiscal discipline" (WorldNetDaily).
National Politics
Best Stories From . . .
-- Wall Street Journal: John Fund interviews Fred Thompson, TV star and possible GOP presidential candidate.
-- U.S. News & World Report: By the middle of next month "the current field of nearly 20 [presidential] hopefuls could effectively be winnowed down to less than a third of that, with three front-runners in each party hanging on to their leads straight through next January. It sounds crazy, and many think it is. But it's also likely, because March 31 marks the end of the first fundraising quarter for what is widely anticipated to be the most expensive presidential race ever."
-- National Journal: After state-crafted health reform plans in Massachusetts and Vermont "drew more accolades from voters than criticism, officials in dozens of states rushed to [create similar programs]. Less than a year later, 26 states either have passed health coverage legislation or have a significant proposal under serious consideration."
-- New York Times: In new book, former House majority leader Tom Delay "attributes the Republican defeat in November to frustration with President Bush, the war and 'a general perception of Republican incompetence and lack of principles.' ... 'I consider George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Denny Hastert all to be good men,' Mr. DeLay writes, 'but there is not an articulate voice among them.'"
Today in Political History
March 19, 1918: Congress creates Daylight Saving Time, which is supposed to conserve energy. (Source: perspicuity)
March 19, 1931: Nevada legalizes gambling. (Source: National Journal 2007 Calendar of American Politics)
March 19, 1860: William Jennings Bryan, gifted orator and three-time presidential candidate, is born in Salem, Ill. (Source: NBC5)
Wise Words
The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you.
-- John E. Southard (Source: Quote Garden)
Leadership Tip
When getting extraordinary things done in organizations, leaders engage in these Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership
- Model the Way
- Inspire a Shared Vision
- Challenge the Process
- Enable Others to Act
- Encourage the Heart
Model the Way: Titles are granted, but it is your behavior that wins you respect … To effectively model the behavior they expect of others, leaders must first be clear about their guiding principles… Speeches about common values aren’t nearly enough. Leader’s deeds are far more important than their words when determining how serious they really are about what they say… Modeling the way is essentially about earning the right and the respect to lead through direct individual involvement and action. People first follow the person, then the plan.
(Source: The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner pages 13-15)
Lighter Side
One More Thing to Worry About
New York Times column says the sky really is falling: “What few probably realize is that there are thousands of … space objects that could hit us in the next century that could cause severe damage, if not total destruction.”
SUWA: BLM Ignores Petition
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and other groups are condemning the BLM for ignoring a petition "to preserve Arch Canyon's natural and cultural resources," which it received "from a broad coalition of conservationists, Navajo Tribal leaders, and local business owners," and which is "supported by independent scientific fieldwork and research. ... Instead of making a decision on the petition, the BLM has begun work on the environmental studies necessary for the issuance of multiple 5-year permits allowing destructive ORV events in this remote, scenic canyon" (see press release).
Blog Watch
-- Woods Cross Citizen says the anti-Irish bigotry LaVarr Webb displayed in a recent edition of Utah Policy Daily reflects poorly on the GOP and is out of harmony with the principles of the LDS Church.
-- Prairie Pundit says: "The most important debate on education in North Dakota may not be unfolding in North Dakota at all. Instead, that debate may be happening in Utah, which last month became the first state to enact a universal school voucher bill. ... Utah is an important test case, because it has a great many public schools in rural areas -- so, we'll be able to see whether private schools arise in those areas to give parents a realistic choice. It'll be a very important case study, both for the nation as a whole and the individual states" (hat tip: Say Anything) (for more on the voucher issue, see Hang Right Politics, The QandO Blog, The Daily Blogster, Going to the Mat, A Tennessee Conservative, The Senate Site, Under The Dome, Utah State Democratic Party, and The Utah Amicus).
-- At The Huffington Post, Kevin Jennings takes a disapproving look at Utah's new school clubs law, and says: "Studies show that student in schools with [Gay-Straight Alliances] feel safer, are more likely to feel like they belong at school, and generally do better in school. ... Senator [Chris] Buttars has proven that he is more than willing to sacrifice [well being of Utah students] to serve his extremist, bigoted political agenda. The real shame is that Buttars' fellow legislators and Utah's Governor let this bully get away with imposing his hateful agenda on Utah's schools. As Martin Luther King once said 'We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people'" (for more Legislature-related posts, see Utah Senate Democrats and Under The Dome).
-- Hugh Hewitt says this post at The Nation's Campaign Matters blog bolsters his argument "that most of the public attacks on Mitt Romney's religious beliefs ... have come from the left. Not all, of course, but most of the high profile ones. ... [T]he theological divide between evangelicals/Catholics and Mormons is vast, but they share the same political enemies and for the same reasons. The religious bigotry on the left is fierce, and almost always unrebuked" (for more Romney-related posts, see Article VI Blog and Scriptorium Daily). |
