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The Week Ahead
Don’t work too hard this week. Save energy for the Memorial Day weekend. A couple of important legislative meetings are scheduled this week, including the Local Issues Task Force (see agenda) on Wednesday. Discussion items include municipal government governance and school building equalization. See the legislative calendar for other meetings and the Utah Policy.com calendar for all the week’s political events.
The Monday Profile
Wayne Holland: A Lifetime of Politics
By GM Jarrard
 Wayne Holland didn’t have a chance. The die was cast. His political proclivities were set at an early age, and they didn’t waver. By the age of 6, he was on his way to become State Democratic Party Chairman. Barely out of kindergarten, small enough for his dad to carry him on his shoulders and still too young to read the signs in the back of his father’s pick-up, the boy was helping his dad put up signs for a Salt Lake attorney by the name of Cal Rampton. It was 1964, and they were looking for high-profile locations on the city’s west side and at intersections where workers stopped on their way to work. Little Wayne was steadying signs while his father pounded in the stakes. It was his first foray into politics. And it must have been addictive because the now-party chairman hasn’t stopped.
“I came from the Labor movement. I was born and raised in a mining community into a working family and was part of a community where 17 of the 21 homes on the street were headed by a parent who worked at the copper mine facilities. I was always the champion of the underdog. Over the years, I worked on voter registration efforts, got involved in support of the Solidadnosc’ movement in Poland and the workers fight against Soviet communism and in the fight against the apartheid policies in South Africa. I was the child of a miner, went to work at the smelter and the concentrator and learned from the best, my dad,” Holland explains.
“As a 10-year-old, I organized the neighbor kids and painted ‘HHH’ Hubert Humphrey banners to put up on our street. I can also recall the anguish of the assassinations that summer of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. It had a great affect on me as a boy, and I watched as my parents consoled each other.”
One of his mentors at this time was an up-and-coming young Democratic politician by the name of Wayne Owens. Holland watched with fascination when, in 1972, Owens “walked his way to Congress.” “My father let me tag along as Wayne greeted the workers leaving the copper plants. It was a thrill.” Two years later, the high schooler worked on get-out-the-vote efforts to help register Democrats and give Owens a boost in his first Senate race.
All this exposure helped a young Wayne Holland get a jump start on his career. (Read entire profile.)
Washington Watch
Hatch Reacts to Immigration Proposal
Sen. Orrin Hatch says of the proposed compromise immigration reform bill: "It's encouraging to have a bipartisan breakthrough on immigration. But it's a big bill -- well over 1,000 pages. I need to look at it carefully, talk to Utahns, and get their views on this complex proposal before deciding whether to oppose or support it" (see press release).
Bennett: House Upholds First Amendment
Sen. Bob Bennett applauds the House Judiciary Committee "for fighting back an amendment to the House lobbying reform bill that would have undermined First Amendment rights by placing onerous reporting requirements on advocacy groups." Says Bennett: "I am pleased to see the House Judiciary Committee join me in defeating efforts that would clearly infringe upon the rights of Americans to petition their government. The Supreme Court has ruled that grassroots advocacy is at the zenith of protected political speech under the First Amendment. I fought hard in the Senate to protect this core freedom, and I commend the committee for doing the same" (see press release).
Today in Political History
May 21, 1506: Columbus dies in relative obscurity in Spain, at Valladolid.
May 21, 1927: Charles A. Lindbergh lands his Spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean. (Source: New York Times)
May 21, 1956: The U.S. explodes the first airborne hydrogen bomb in the Pacific. (Source: perspicuity)
Wise Words
“The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.”
-- Joan Didion (Source: Quote Garden)
Lincoln on Leadership
Circulate Among the Troops
"His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, & allows nobody to see him; and by which he does not know what is going on in the very matter he is dealing with."
-- Abraham Lincoln, explaining why he relieved Gen. John C. Fremont from his command in Missouri (September 9, 1861)
Principles Taught by Lincoln
-- Explain yourself in writing and offer advice on how to solve problems.
-- It is important that the people know you come among them without fear.
-- Seek casual contact with your subordinates. It is as meaningful as a formal gathering, if not more so.
-- Don't often decline to see people who call on you.
-- Take public opinion baths (listen to what people are saying).
-- Be the very embodiment of good temper and affability.
-- Remember, everyone likes a compliment.
-- If your subordinates can stand it, so can you. Set a good example.
-- You must seek and require access to reliable and up-to-date information.
(Source: Lincoln on Leadership)
National Politics
Best Stories From . . .
-- Chicago Sun-Times: Columnist Mark Steyn says of the proposed compromise immigration reform plan: "Don't worry: It's not an 'amnesty.' Every politician in America is opposed to amnesty -- if not the concept, then at least the word. That's why the visa starts with the letter that's furthest away from the one 'amnesty' begins with. 'Z' stands for zellout . . . no, hang on, zurrender or Zapatista, or some other word way up the other end of the alphabet from 'amnesty.' But the point is, at a stroke there will be no more illegal immigrants. Because being illegal means you're now legal" (see also related BusinessWeek story).
-- Los Angeles Times: "For front-runners Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, Florida looked to be a major battleground in the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. ... But now, because of an unexpected glitch, those delegates could go to [candidates] most Americans don't even know [are] running ... It sounds like just another wacky political dust-up from the land of hanging chads and butterfly ballots. But the problem is considered so serious that Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and state party officials are embroiled in frantic behind-the-scenes negotiations to stave off a potential disaster that could quickly spread across the nation."
-- Newsweek: Article looks at Bill Clinton's complex role in his wife's presidential campaign.
-- New York Times Magazine: "Six years after the Supreme Court declared him the loser of [the 2000] presidential race ... Al Gore has attained what you can only call prophetic status; and he has done so by acting as he could not, or would not, as a candidate -- saying precisely what he believes, and saying it with clarity, passion, intellectual mastery and even, sometimes, wit. Everywhere he goes, people urge him, almost beg him, to run for the presidency. He probably won't -- though he might. ... He says he thinks he'd be better at it this time than he was last time."
Blog Watch
-- Rep. John Dougall: “How could I be so insensitive and politically incorrect by not tracking the carbon footprint made by my diet? Hopefully the Gov won't send Arnold looking for this eco-destroying girly-man next time he is in town.”
-- New West (David Frey): “In remote Utah, artist Nancy Holt has created her renowned Sun Tunnels land art installation. The work includes a series of tunnels that Holt, the widow of legendary Spiral Jetty creator Robert Smithson, created to turn sunshine into art.”
-- Phil Windley: “I don’t agree with a lot of things Rocky Anderson says and does, but I’d like to see more cities (not to mention the State) follow his example in establishing a fund for renewable energy technologies.”
-- Rep. Craig Frank: “Even before the premature beginning of the ’08 Presidential race, the Hollywood ‘left’ and the MSM teamed up to market to the American public what they felt would be the primary focus of this extended political season—Greenhouse Gas Emissions. And, jumping right into the middle of this internationally explosive issue is…Utah!”
-- Rep. Steve Urquhart: “I walked into the PDF speakers’ reception (at Google’s offices in Chelsea) with Andrew Keen, a digital dissenter. As presented in his soon-to-be-released Cult of the Amateur: how today’s Internet is killing our culture, Andrew’s theory is that Web 2.0 largely is rubbish, in that we’re not using the tools to build anything of value as much as we’re using the tools to tear down existing infrastructure (e.g., cultural, political, economic), merely to then shout about nothing within our own echo chambers. To Keen, Web 2.0 is a bunch of monkeys hammering away on keyboards.”
Lighter Side
The Rocky Roast
From showstopper Jim Braden, spokesman for Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon:
-- "If it wasn't for Rocky, Merrill Cook wouldn't have won anything at all."
-- "Rocky's legacy: 'You're fired, you're fired, you're fired, nice tush, and you're fired.'"
-- "Congratulations: Being the best-known Democrat in Utah is like being the thinnest guy at fat camp." (Source: Derek Jensen at the Trib’s Out of Context). |
