Do What I Say! Even When I’m Obviously Wrong!
Mark Shurtleff wrote today about the unanimous Supreme Court decision contradicting his legal advice to the State Board of Education. I don’t begrudge Mr. Shurtleff his chance to publicly defend his actions but for him to come out criticizing those who didn’t follow his obviously flawed legal arguments is pretty lame. The board saw that he was wrong, their lawyers saw that he was wrong, most Utahns thought he was wrong and a unanimous Utah Supreme Court finally put him in his place. It is hard to see how Mr. Shurtleff doesn’t deserve some of the unhappiness he claims to have encountered from his constituents.
UPDATE: 07/06/2007 10:30 AM
Rep. Craig Frank laud’s the AG’s attempt to defend his actions and almost accuses voucher opponents of lying to get petition signatures for the referendum:
I don’t think I’ve spoken with a single individual who signed the petition (or would have signed it) that is[n’t] seriously reconsidering their actions and their vote. You see, many of them feel they were “coerced” or “lied to.”
Pretty lame stuff. I’m sure glad most Utahns aren’t really as dumb as many Republicans assume we are. The vast majority of the people who signed the petition knew what they were asking for. When most Utahns vote against the voucher plan in November they’ll also be aware of what they are doing. Republican patronizing aside…we’re smart enough not to be fooled by PCE and their sponsored politicians into doing something that could potentially be as bad for our state as this voucher bill could be.
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The Herald was a few weeks late in printing the AG’s “open letter”. It first surfaced in the middle of June.
http://www.kcpw.org/article/3777
I have to chuckle at the (alleged) coercion–yesterday I received an email from a voucher opponent citing an incident where a neighbor in favor of vouchers had been misinformed as to the law’s eligibility requirements, concluding misinformation is rampant.
Both sides need to understand that “data” is not the plural of “anecdote”.
Comment by Tom — July 6, 2007 @ 6:37 pm
I think it’s quite obvious that most Utahns believed that signing the petition would give Utah citizens an up or down vote on vouchers. Unless signature solicitors misrepresented what people were signing (i.e. “Sign this to save our schools from evil people.”) and signators failed to read what they were signing, it would be disingenuous to now claim that they were misled. I’m sure most signators knew what they were doing.
I know some that signed the petition that favor vouchers. But they also believe that Utah citizens should be able to vote on it.
Comment by Reach Upward — July 6, 2007 @ 8:54 pm