Governor Huntsman refuses to endorse Chris Cannon. So have Utah Senators Hatch, Bennett and virtually ALL other high-ranking republicans in Utah.

Maybe it’s because of Cannon’s endearing pleas of leniency for his former Chief of Staff David Safavian or Cannon’s repeated bigoted comments, or maybe it’s because of Cannon’s own ethics problems that no one will endorse him.

According to Cannon’s own website the only humans endorsing Cannon are George W. Bush, his dutiful wife Laura, and Rep Sensenbrenner. Not even Barney will endorse Cannon.

By any measure, Utah’s 3^rd congressional district was considered one of the safest republican seats in the entire country. Not anymore.

In an historical about face, The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah’s major daily newspaper serving the reddest congressional district in the reddest state in the nation has endorsed Cannon’s democratic opponent, Christian Burridge.

In fact I cannot find one — NOT ONE — Utah-based organization that has endorsed Cannon. He complied when asked to remove “a reference to the “Utah Minutemen” from his re-election campaign Web site after the head of the anti-illegal immigration group complained it was an implied endorsement.” (read article…)

In the most recent and last debate, and Cannon flailed badly for all the world to see. His answers were incoherent. He lied repeatedly. He even repeated his lies about his support of Iraq war veterans despite having possibly the worse ratings from Veterans groups one can have.

As an optimistic progressive deeply involved in Utah politics, not even I thought a democrat stood a chance in that seat. But then came this lovable and brilliant Mormon out of nowhere and into the heart and minds of Utahns — liberal, conservative, and pious Mormon.

Christian Burridge is the kind of breath of fresh air that can only surface in the space of sacrificial lamb. He’ll never admit he entered the race knowing he had no chance of winning because he’s not stupid. But thanks to national re-examination of party loyalty, and the particularly sober-minded demographics in Utah County, anything could happen. We anxiously await the results of a new poll out tomorrow.

And suddenly, Cannon is flailing and is agreeing to debates and Utah is getting to see the vacuous Bush water boy, with the “kick me” bumper sticker on his head.

If Cannon has been a real Utahn and a real Mormon all this time, he might not have found himself in this position. But as with the neo-political culture in the last six years, this republican, having led the impeachment of Clinton, has become the poster boy of the administration’s team players.

No intelligent Utahn can claim that Chris Cannon is qualified, able, or willing to represent Utah in the US Congress.

I question his qualifications because he is appears to have a below average IQ.

I question his ability because he seems to be the water boy for the administration and lobbyist like Abramoff probably because he has a below average IQ and they know it.

And I say unwilling because Chris Cannon votes with his party (with irrelevant exceptions) virtually all the time, and Utah’s interest are very different from the average state, and so Chris gets almost no money from Utah but rather from special interests who want to exploit Utah’s resources.

Chris Cannon has never done anything for Utah. I have yet to hear or read anyone or anything that even attempts to claim the Chris Cannon has done anything for Utah, that we wouldn’t have gotten if we had no representative in congress.