Watch the Speaker of the House begin to set the mood for the Big O starting around the 2:38 mark:
And The Daily Herald gets it right ... Hold the applause: A shameful moment in the Utah House:
Kevin Garn, the Republican majority leader in the Utah House of Representatives resigned Saturday, not because it was the right thing to do but because it was the only thing he could do.
Mirroring Sheldon Killpack, his counterpart in Senate leadership who was forced to resign at the beginning of the 2010 session, Rep. Kevin Garn of Layton was caught in a web of his own making.
This Killpack ... Utah Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack arrested for DUI:
As The Daily Herald notes (shades of William Blake?):
[Garn's] departure wraps things up [i.e., Utah's 2010 legislative session] with sickening symmetry.
And I wholeheartedly agree with Holly on the Hill (who serves up a nine-point indictment of the creep behind the creepy Capitol Kabuki that she's dubbed "ApplauseGate"): Utah’s Speaker of the House, Dave Clark, needs to resign. Now.
In addition to booting this clap happy mutual admiration society from office, with a new census on the way, Utahns ought to be insisting on a fix for their gerrymandered state.
Some have pondered the potential "Vaticanization" of downtown SLC, but the way things are being run over at the Capitol and COB, Utah's apparently already got its own Vatican-on-the-brine. It's déjà vu:
Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, admitted that he attended meetings in 1975 when two teenage boys signed oaths of silence while testifying in a Church inquiry against Father Brendan Smyth ... [Cardinal Brady] said the responsibility for Smyth’s behaviour as a priest rested with his religious superior in Kilnacrott and not with him.
All over again:
Pursuant to our usual procedures, the 2008 letter sent by Ms. Maher to Church headquarters was referred to local ecclesiastical leaders to be addressed. Church disciplinary matters are handled at a local level and not at Church headquarters.
But once the locals have gotten it wrong and the "usual procedures" have proven inadequate, isn't it time for the leadership to stop playing innocent bystander? If not, as Stephen Fry might ask, "what are you for?" Frankly, considering its role in this story, the LDS leadership looks to be for a practice discontinued by the Catholics since 1567, the year that Pope Pius V did away with the selling of indulgences.
Update: Latest from The Salt Lake Tribune: Ovation echoes » Lawmakers under fire for applauding their colleague. House Speaker David Clark continues to dazzle with brilliance:
"I hope the people of Utah understand that our [clapping, cheering, crying, hugging, whooping and hollering display of] support of Representative Garn and his family does not in any way signal support for illegal, unethical or ill-advised action by any member of the House."
Personally, Dave, I hope the people of Utah decide they've had enough of being taken for fools by the likes of you:
Few in the body knew the [March 12] admission was coming, although Clark had learned of it four days earlier ... In hindsight, Clark said, another venue may have been more appropriate for the announcement.
Dave, you talk about "hindsight" with regards to a bit of political theater that you yourself orchestrated less than a week ago?
How about a nice big round of applause for your comedy performance?
P.S. No kidding, Jack, what's up with that?
*Bagley cartoons posted with permission
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