A partial dirt road has sat there for years as UDOT went back to writing expanded EIS studies.

But did Leavitt or legislators get into any political trouble over this?

Nope.

There wasn't even much finger-pointing among politicians — just a damning of those who sued.

The minority Democrats can claim they never favored Legacy anyway; that the Republicans just rolled over them.

The Republicans just point to Anderson and the environmentalists and smile — for from the GOP point of view you can't demonize these people enough.

If Anderson and some Sierra Club members had accidentally stumbled into the state or county GOP conventions held the past several years they may have been lynched — with the GOP House and Senate then passing resolutions of commendation for the perpetrators.

No. You don't see many hard-core GOP delegates criticizing their state officials for terribly misreading the road-building tea leaves and costing citizens $200 million.

The blame all falls on those who dare to sue over a controversial road-building project.

Our system of government is built on checks and balances.

In a more politically balanced state, perhaps larger groups of Democrats in the state House or even a Democratic governor may have slowed down a road-building juggernaut. Or perhaps even moderate GOP lawmakers could have stepped forward. But not here.

Instead, it took the courts — at a cost of $200 million.

Negotiation is always better than litigation.

We'll see if Utah state leaders learned anything from Legacy; for history says that voters will not teach any lessons in future elections.

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Deseret Morning News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com