This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Rep. Curt Oda, R-Clearfield, is famous for his bill a few years ago that would have made it legal to shoot feral cats.
The measure, which eventually failed in the Senate, had to be tweaked by another representative before it cleared the House. The change barred potential cat snipers from firing their weapons at felines across a road or within 600 feet of a building.
Oda got some cat calls from his own colleagues when summing up his legislation on the House floor. Some even meowed while he was speaking.
Comedian Stephen Colbert had a heyday lampooning the bill on Comedy Central.
But Oda's peculiar brand of politics has manifested itself even more poignantly in less-public ways, sometimes in sniping emails or texts with someone who disagrees with him.
I once wrote about Oda's email exchange with a server who urged him to change his opposition to a bill banning smoking in bars. The server noted she was a struggling single mother trying to earn a living but found the cigarette smoke in the tavern where she worked suffocating.
His advice: Get another job.
In another instance, an advocate for the Navajo Nation asked Oda in a voice message why he voted against a resolution urging Congress to honor the Navajo Code Talkers, who played a key role in helping the U.S. defeat Japan in World War II.
Oda responded in a voice mail that after he had supported their issues in the past, they didn't do anything to help him in his previous campaign.
When two bills sponsored by Rep. Becky Edwards, R-North Salt Lake, passed the House a couple of years ago, Oda placed 24-hour holds on them before they could be sent to the Senate.
Why?
Edwards had opposed an Oda-sponsored resolution for a constitutional amendment to outlaw any kind of affirmative-action program.
Now, here's the latest.
When feminist writer Anita Sarkeesian, who had received numerous death threats, canceled a lecture recently at Utah State University after learning state law bans colleges from disallowing guns on campus, Oda, the Legislature's leading gun-rights advocate, accused her of overreacting.
That prompted an email from Scott Gould, who wrote: "I have to say I too am a gun owner. But your statement about the young lady not wanting to speak was first and foremost her own right to do so. Her decision to cancel was based on something you and I cannot comment on because 'we' are not her. If one has a gut reaction to something, I, for one, say, follow your gut feeling as I have always done and teach my children to do. For you to say 'she overreacted' shows us in Utah and those that may read this elsewhere, that you are a blind man. Please do yourself and the voters of Utah a favor and get your yourself right as to the decisions of others that differ from yours. Your statement shows your lack of compassion and intolerance to others."
Responded Oda: "That's your opinion and I gave mine. Practice what you preach!"
Gould: "Wow! What a jerk ! [Check] the Trib for this correspondence. It will be going to Rolly."
Oda: "Takes one to know one! You started it!"
Gould: "Really ?! What a class act !!!"
Oda: "Reeeaaalllyyy! My gad, grow up!!!"