Hickville Dispatch©

The Salt Lake Tribune reports on the first debate in the gubernatorial debate. The current governor, Olene Walker, is Utah's first female governor. She was not elected; she took office when Gov. Mike Leavitt left to take charge of the EPA and join the President's Yes-Men Brigade.

When she first took office, a small group within the Utah legislature argued that Walker shouldn't be called "Governor Walker," but rather "Acting Governor Walker." The majority of the Utah legislature is much better at hiding their latent sexism. It's pervasive sexism as well; when the feminists were burning bras, Olene Walker was taking time off to be a housewife, and only returned to her career as a professor when her children were grown. She is now a veteran great-grandmother and, oh yeah, Governor of the State of Utah.

Now that an election looms, it's quite clear that the Republican establishment will not tolerate a female governor. Rather than unify behind walker, as they did several times for Leavitt, the Utah Legislature has offered up eight separate primary challengers to attack Walker. Salt Lake City Weekly has a good report on the many, many Utah politicos arranging themselves against walker. When I say Utah politicos, I'm referring to the uber-conservatives that dominate: they consider the Utah teacher's union to be Satan-spawned, and some have accused Orrin Hatch of caving to the liberals. One, Frank Pignaelli, wrote that Walker was "Utah's first Democratic Female Governor."

The politicos aren't pulling any punches. So much for chivalry. Walker vetoed a school-voucher bill earlier this year because of it appeared to violate the Utah constitution and had an inadequate funding mechanism. To the Utah Legislature, who pass several unconstitutional "message bills" each year, this translated into support of the teacher's union and that means she doesn't support education. The politicos also love freeways, whereas Walker isn't so fond of turning Salt Lake into L.A.:

The governor and speaker exchanged another round of verbal blows over transportation issues, focusing on the aging stretch of Interstate 15 through Utah County.

Criticizing Walker for proposing to shift money from roads to schools, Stephens said: "We cannot continue to have this type of leadership in the state."

So there you have it. The complaints against Walker:

• She doesn't fund school vouchers.
• She wants to spend more on schools and less on roads.

Utah politicians excel in this sort of logical disconnect--wanting to spend money on schools demonstrates a lack of commitment to education. Support teachers and your against education.

One quality of this sort of thinking is that you can direct it in favor or against anyone; it operates on a purely emotional level, without regard for facts. The fact that they are employing it against one of their own instead of Utah's Official Democratic Punching Bag©, Rocky Anderson, means they don't like Walker. And the only reason they don't? Well, she's a woman. What's she doing out of the kitchen?

I don't know if the people of Utah feel that way, but The Trib's article was less than encouraging:

The 400-plus crowd that packed into the Provo City Library for the first debate following Tuesday's neighborhood caucuses cheered the criticisms of Walker.

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