Thursday, November 21, 2013

Utah Attorney General John Swallow Needed to Step Down.

John Swallow resigned today and though I am obviously not in Utah these days; I pay close attention to what is happening in my home state and country. The John Swallow saga has been at the top of my news feed for weeks. If you are unsure what is happening Former State Senator Dan Liljenquist has a great op-ed in the Deseret News: (See Here).

But in a nut shell is suspected of a whole slew of misdeeds but I wanted to focus my comments on my own personal experiences and observations of Mr. Swallow.

For the few years I was heavily involved in Utah politics starting around 2001, I had the chance to casually meet John Swallow, but I definitely got to know his campaign staffers and those around him.  You see, campaign staffers know a lot more than people realize; but we are often sworn to secrecy if we want a job after.  However we are not immune to telling each other the dirt.  In a nut shell John Swallow is an ambitious person who would stop at nothing to get elected to office.  But as Oscar Wilde once said, "ambition is the last refuge of the failure."

His campaigns were always dirty, his staffers often talked about him as someone demanded to be pampered and treated like a king.  From nice cars, food and gifts.  It appears to me he has burned a lot of bridges and was limited in friends.

His press conference today was worthless and I am disappointed he couldn't even come forward.  If he really was innocent push forward and make a case, but instead he just keeps digging a hole deeper and deeper.  I love he said that because he stood strong through this he experienced the greatest blessings of his life.  Not sure how resigning shows that especially since he has tried to run for office so many times.  It is too bad, his ambition got the best of him and brought him down.

He said in the end today was a truly sad day because he was innocent, I disagree.

1 comment:

Educational Politics in Utah said...

John Swallow was a jerk. My wife used to work with some people with mental disabilities. He pushed hard to make it so they couldn't live in his neighborhood. I am glad he is out of office. I didn't vote for him to be there in the first place.