This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Come on, folks, wise up. We should all understand why our federal delegation from Utah — Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch and Reps. Jason Chaffetz, Mia Love, Chris Stewart and Rob Bishop — won't challenge the Trump administration on its many, many ethic violations. It's Bears Ears.
Call me cynical, but I suggest that all of our members of Congress have conspired to ignore Trump's violations in order to get the deal done. They recognize that if they anger Trump, he will be less inclined to reduce or reverse the monument.
Chaffetz knows this, which illuminates his reasons for looking the other way on Trump and his staff's many conflicts of interest. As chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Chaffetz wants to see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil regarding Trump.
This also explains why Chaffetz chose June 30 to vacate his seat. It wasn't a random date, but a politically calculated one. Chaffetz wants to be in office when Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announces his recommendation negatively impacting the monument. Then, off to Fox News to make money by continuing to ridicule the Democrats, leaving ethics investigations to some other Republican sap.
Samantha Finch
Salt Lake City