Yep, I had more on Chris Buttars that I found today.

Sen. Chris Buttars listens to Cristy Gleave, of Salt Lake City, as she
testifies before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Monday about
Buttars’ bill to repeal the new domestic-partnership registry. (Scott
Sommerdorf/The Salt Lake Tribune)

“Christensen said Amendment 3 deliberately outlaws synonyms or substitutes
that “approximate marriage.” And he alleged that registry supporters have “a
broader agenda” than securing health benefits or visitation rights – which
never have been threatened, according to SB267 backers.

Tell that to Cristy Gleave, a lesbian mother who told the committee she was
not immediately allowed to see her partner at LDS Hospital after a serious car
accident.

That did not sway Buttars, who equated the registry certificate with
marriage papers. But City Attorney Ed Rutan rejected the comparison, saying
there is “absolutely nothing” in the language that violates Utah’s marriage
law.”

The Salt Lake Trib’s letters to the editor and editorial pages exploded today after the latest Buttars debacle broke open, and several letters referred to the image above. Trib columnist Rebecca Walsh also attempted to find one voter in South Jordan who admitted voting for Buttars. No one did, and most people she encountered did not even know who he was. He’s supposed to be going on a mission (at his age! Probably hoping for a stake presidency someplace warm and exotic) and will not be running again
in 2008, thank God.

Yesterday’s “old Mormon bishop” letter was one of the most-read articles in the Trib. Right on again, bish!

Here’s a Trib editorial…

More good quotes from the letters section:

“The undisguised fear, contempt and loathing on the good senator’s face is
shocking in its nakedness.”

“Salt Lake City residents did not elect Buttars to the Legislature. We did
elect Mayor Becker and the City Council, and we trust them to make decisions
for our community. Butt out, Sen. Buttars.”

“What a telling photo of Chris Buttars on the front page this morning
(“Becker’s registry sparks a squabble,” Tribune, Feb. 12). If there was ever a
picture of hateful intolerance that is it. “

Assorted other blogs:

blogs.sltrib.com – Salt Lake Crawler by Glen Warchol

dKos: a diary by ragged claws scuttling

And the caption contest/LOLbiggit extravaganza has started, too.

A blast from the past: audio of the debate on another Buttars-sponsored piece of nasty intolerance, including an impromptu speech during debate from State Sen. Scott McCoy, Utah’s only openly gay state senator. Buttars once publicly expressed surprise that “the gay?” got a committee appointment, and McCoy promptly registered a vanity license plate: “THEGAY.”

[tags]Chris Buttars, homophobe, religious nut, Utah legislator, racist[/tags]

Utah’s other idiot pol named Chris, Rep. Cannon of that ilk, shoots his mouth off over his dreams of chairing a committee in Congress and bein’ all ‘portant and stuff.  He has a mathematically possible chance and a practically impossible chance: a whole bunch of senior Republicans have decided to retire (or euphemism of choice) off of committees he’s on, but the Democrats would have to lose their majority for him to be anything other than “ranking Republican” on them. Or, “rank Republican” if you prefer.

He paints a rosy picture indeed of how wonderful it would be for him to chair a committee someday, like maybe Oversight/Govt Reform or Natural Resources. Just by sitting like a lump on a log, he automagically gains all kinds of seniority juju this fall…  that is, if he can get re-elected. And in a heavily Republican state like Utah, an incumbent never faces challengers from within his own party, it’s simply not done.

Okay, almost never.

Salt Lake Tribune – Cannon growing old in D.C.

Before any of this matters, Cannon must secure his seventh term in office.He faces three intra-party challengers, who will try to unseat him at the state Republican convention.

So far, Utah’s other representatives, Republican Rob Bishop and Democrat Jim Matheson, remain unchallenged.

THREE challengers. This is a sign that the electorate is not happy with Cannon, and/or that several different factions of the Utah GOP’s coalition of business/mining/energy/social conservative interests think their guy might do better against whatever Democrat is running.

Utah would probably do better to lose the loose Cannon, IMHO. He doesn’t have a terribly distinguished career, he’s linked to David Safavian, the family lobbying business run by brother Joe is a little too cozy with him, and he was on last year’s CREW watchlist .

If his dreams come true, that’s one Top Ten list he’ll make in the future.