OPINION

Paul Rolly

Oct. 31, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- When Rep. Mike Noel became incensed that a Utah State University physics professor criticized a scientist that Noel had brought to the Legislature to speak against the prevailing theory of climate change, he went directly to the professor's boss. That incited speculation that Noel was using his legislative position to intimidate someone who had the audacity to disagree with him.

Noel readily acknowledged he had told USU President Stan Albrecht he was disappointed that USU had a professor who would make such statements while working at a "state-supported institution." But he said he didn't threaten anyone.

Maybe not. But Noel's umbrage fits the pattern of implied or perceived threats that lawmakers have made over the years to cut budgets or livelihoods when someone vulnerable to legislative scrutiny says or does something they don't like.

Noel, who publicly has referred to those who disagree with him as "liars" and "scumbags" and "lowlifes" and "radicals," said he was concerned about "personal attacks" USU professor Robert Davies had made against scientist Roy Spencer, who, like Noel, disbelieves the theory that human activity is the primary cause of global warming.

Noel later told the Herald Journal in Logan that he was merely joking with Albrecht. Sort of like then Senate President Al Mansell's "innocent" comment to then University of Utah President Bernie Machen when he saw Democrat Trisha Beck, who had served in the House,

guiding students through the halls of the Capitol as part of a class she was teaching at the U.

Beck didn't have a college degree at the time and Mansell, who had some power over the U.'s budget, asked Machen if the U. was in the habit of hiring non-graduates to teach classes.

That was enough to make Machen sound the sirens at the U. and Beck, who earlier had been approached by the political science department and asked to teach the class, was quickly demoted to teaching assistant and told she no longer could teach the class. That caused a number of students to drop the course.

Perhaps Machen was jumpy because lawmakers earlier had threatened to cut his salary because of his policy banning students or employees from bringing guns on campus.

Many believe that Judge Robert Hilder's ruling upholding the U.'s gun ban policy was the reason the Senate this year rejected Hilbert's nomination to the Utah Court of Appeals.

And Mansell's "harmless" comment to Machen about Beck was not the first time the senator had tried to intimidate or punish someone he disagreed with.

When KSL Radio commentator Doug Wright criticized the partisan way the Legislature redrew legislative and congressional boundaries in 2001, Mansell wrote to Elder Russell M. Ballard, a member of the LDS Church's Quorum of Twelve Apostles, calling the radio host a bigot who was trying to tear apart the community. Ballard forwarded the letter to Bruce Reese, president of Bonneville International, KSL's parent company, which is owned by the church.

Then there was the time Sen. Chris Buttars told Mapleton City officials they should give developer and good friend Wendell Gibby zoning changes he sought, or Buttars would push legislation that would punish Mapleton. That was after Buttars wrote a threatening letter to a judge who had ruled against Gibby.

And there was the time Sen. Howard Stephenson threatened the State Office of Education with budget cuts if the office didn't give contracts to specific bidders favored by Stephenson.

Another time, when a state senator's nephew didn't get accepted to the University of Utah medical school, a group of senators demanded a legislative audit of the medical school to determine if it discriminated against Mormons.

And former U. of U. President Arthur Smith once was summoned to a meeting of Utah County legislators who accused the U. of hiring too many non-Mormon professors and teaching anti-Mormon principles at the school.

And, last but not least, former Sen. Bill Hickman was able to cut a State Health Department Budget and eliminate the position of an inspector who angered one of his St. George constituents by strictly enforcing swimming pool regulations.

prolly@sltrib.com

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