This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz has generated a great deal of publicity for himself since he became chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, largely because of his ambitious agenda of embarrassing Democrats and liberal organizations.

The image he has garnered for himself is either really, really good, or horrendously bad, depending on your perspective.

But also, now, you could add to the Chaffetz persona the label "self-flagellation," which could be good if you're into flogging yourself on the back for either religious reasons or sexual gratification.

Chaffetz is one of the members of the Utah delegation who still insists on endorsing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, despite his bombastic rhetoric and antics that have led to a pretty low approval rating among Utahns.

But, hey, he's a Republican and so Chaffetz just needs to endorse him. It's the lovable elephant factor, perhaps.

But here's why it seems the Chaffetz endorsement of The Donald makes the four-term congressman a flagellant: Trump's new campaign chief thinks the House Oversight chairman is "a sniveling little sh.." who "deserves to have his ass kicked in the conservative media."

That comment actually came from Matt Boyle, a reporter for the conservative online rag, Breitbart News, in an email conversation two years ago with Stephen Bannon, the Trump campaign's new chief executive.

But Bannon, who headed Breitbart at the time, seemed in agreement with Boyle's comments, which came in response to Bannon's questioning whether Breitbart had been invited to a meeting Chaffetz held with media representatives to outline his agenda for the House Oversight Committee.

Bannon, in the exchange with Boyle, also recommended a "scorched earth policy" and "turning on the hate" toward the establishment, calling House leaders a terrible word that rhymes with bunts.

The conversation was chronicled by the Daily Beast in an article last week after it obtained copies of the emails.

Another Trump supporter is two-term Utah Rep. Chris Stewart, who is such a loyal Republican his rhetoric has suggested he would support Mussolini if he were the GOP candidate.

Stewart is a member of the House Intelligence Committee and recently returned from a trip to Russia, suggesting that Russia may be trying to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.

That's a pretty astute comment in light of recent revelations about Russia's hacking into Democratic Party emails and millions of dollars secretly sent by Russian-backed interests to lobbying firms in the U.S.

But then Stewart added to the comments that, while not qualifying him as a flagellant like Chaffetz, makes him more similar to the gingerbread man that jumped on the fox's nose to be safe.

He told The Salt Lake Tribune in an article last week that he doesn't believe Russia is targeting one party over another, adding, "I don't think they care who the next president is."

Really? This House intelligence member who fashions himself an expert on foreign relations thinks Russia is meddling just for meddling's sake?

It was the National Democratic Committee whose emails were hacked, leading to much embarrassment for Democratic Party leaders. And the secret money funneled to U.S. lobbying firms was tied to Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign guru before he resigned when those revelations came out. And Trump has praised Vladimir Putin, not to mention Trump's former top aide has close ties to the Russian hierarchy.

And Trump once said he hoped Russia hacked into all of Hillary Clinton's emails — just being sarcastic, of course.

But as a good Republican, you can't bash Russia without implicating the Democrats, too. That just wouldn't be loyal. —