Gotta love this man.

Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, as Paul Rolly of the Salt Lake Tribune puts it, is a “low tax, small government, pro-business fiscal conservative.”  But he’s the kind of Republican that pisses off Gayle Ruzicka and the Utah Eagle Forum.  Which, in my opinion, makes him a good Republican.

How does he piss off the Ruzickastanians?  Let me count the ways:

1. He showed his opposition to a bill that would ban the teaching of evolution in Utah schools by wearing a monkey tail during the session the Senate voted on the bill.
2. He sponsored a bill that would make it easier for teachers to discuss contraception in sex education classes.
3. He helped prevent legislation against the IB program by people who think it’s a United Nations socialist plot against the American way of life.
4. When the Sutherland Institute got all bent out of shape over the Sundance Film festival, he compared them to the Westboro Baptist Church.
5. And just this legislative session, he sponsored, and helped push through the Senate Committee with a favorable recommendation, a bill that would have banned housing and employment discrimination against the LGBT community.  (It still failed in full session vote).

Hmmmmm, Gov. Herbert showing rational thought, Sen. Aaron Osmond listening to actual Educators when thinking about education legislation, and now Sen. Urquhart refusing to be a jellyfish and showing backbone by standing up to the Eagle Forum.

Is the Utah Republican Party learning that extremism is what cost them in the last election, or is this just a temporary shift?