KUER's host of "Radio West," Doug Fabrizio, has a deserved reputation as a first-rate interviewer. He bends over backward to be fair but still asks tough, insightful questions. And he always seems to find the perfectly nuanced phrase with which to frame a question or an idea. This last skill I admire most.

Still, with his mellifluous voice and deferential manner, Fabrizio is thought by some to be a little soft. He's no Mike Wallace, he readily admits.

So when he stuck to his guns on his Wednesday show over a difficult question for Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman, it took a few people by surprise - Workman, who bristles when challenged, most of all. She walked out.

I was sitting across the hall at the time, waiting to go on the program. Workman took a few steps, realized she had forgotten her purse, went back to retrieve it, then was gone. She was smiling.

Workman watchers know that smile. It has a practiced quality that can be called on no matter how difficult the circumstances. Like having a mug shot taken. Or storming out of a radio interview.

The purse detail illustrates how flustered and hurried she was.

It all started out differently. Fabrizio was pleasantly surprised when Workman agreed to come on the show - so surprised that his staff checked several times to make sure she understood how it worked. She even arrived alone, which was gutsy. But she was utterly unprepared, particularly for the tough question she stumbled on, and should have expected.

Here's the background: It's well understood that Workman has cast herself as a victim of a political vendetta by Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom. Never mind that Yocom followed the law in responding to a whistle-blower complaint, or that he has since disappeared entirely from the case. He makes a convenient bogeyman.

On Fabrizio's show, Workman media consultant Dave Owen even compared Yocom to a terrorist. "I hate to use the cliche how if we stop what we're doing the terrorists win. But there is a parallel. I think none of us want to see David Yocom have success in this manner and be able to essentially hijack an election by the use of his office."

Less well understood is that ever since a bipartisan panel of district attorneys recommended she be charged with two felonies for misappropriation of public funds, Workman's biggest problem hasn't been Dave Yocom. It's Kay Bryson. It's a classic strategy of misdirection, and what caused Workman to melt down was Fabrizio's refusal to take the feint.

The Utah County district attorney is one of the four DAs who recommended the charges against Workman. Accusing Bryson, a staunch Republican, of colluding with Yocom is absurd. Try as she might, that makes it impossible for Workman to credibly assert that the case is political. But she does anyway, hoping voters will see her as a victim.

When Workman repeated the charge to Fabrizio, insisting that Bryson and the other panel members were not really independent because they had signed an oath of some kind in order to do the legal business of Salt Lake County, Fabrizio called her on it.

"Bryson beholden to Yocom? That just doesn't seem plausible," he said.

"Don't you respect Bryson's independence or integrity?" It was a fair question, since Workman had raised the issue.

It was a no-win situation - and she'd put herself there. She could hardly say Bryson was dishonest, but if she suggested he was credible, then maybe the charges against her were, too. She panicked.

"Hey, if you're gonna talk like that . . . " she huffed, trying to make Fabrizio the bad guy.

"Talk like what?" said a flabbergasted Fabrizio. But it was too late. She was gone.

Fabrizio was aggressive, but that was to his credit. Listeners, feeling snubbed, turned on her. Phone calls and e-mails poured into the station, the vast majority critical of Workman.

At that point the question of her guilt or innocence was no longer the issue. Whatever goodwill, and possibly votes, she had earned just for showing up evaporated and turned into a petulant negative. In the words of LaVarr Webb, "you just don't do that." Not with so much at stake.

It was a huge opportunity wasted.

Fabrizio has invited the mayor to return, but that seems unlikely. He would have to pick up where he left off, and Workman still has no answer to the Bryson question. But it may all be moot. The Republican leadership is trying hard to convince Workman to find a medical excuse that would allow a replacement on the ballot. After Wednesday, that shouldn't be difficult.

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John Yewell, a frequent contributor to these pages, lives and writes in Salt Lake City.