Moneygrubbers: They're hunters and gatherers with airplanes, jetting into Utah for private fundraising events and jetting out with cold cash for their presidential campaigns. GOP candidates John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney have all buzzed into the Beehive State to rub elbows with and pick the pockets of rich and richer Republicans, while ignoring the rest of us. Now, Democratic candidate John Edwards, champion of the poor and supposedly an unlikely candidate for ignoring John and Jane Doe of Utah, appears to be following in the Republicans' jet stream. Edwards will visit Salt Lake City June 1 for a $500-per-person private fundraiser. As of Friday, no public appearances had been scheduled. Candidates should take time to listen to the little guy, not just the fat wallets.

Now if we just had a reason to go: Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble and House Majority Leader David Clark appear at a loss to adequately explain why they, with 12 other legislators and two staffers, are heading off on an eight-day summer trip to China at a cost to you guessed it taxpayers, of $36,000. Business representatives and their lobbyists can go along, too, if they want to pay their own way. They aren't elected officials, you see. The trip is being billed, vaguely, as a trade and diplomatic mission, or whatever else will help justify the expense to the people who are actually paying for it. If Bramble and Clark were working for a business, wouldn't they have to come up with a fairly detailed cost-benefit analysis before asking their bosses to fly them halfway around the world?