Murray, guv aren't that different

As targets go, coal mining barons — like bratty hotel heiresses and miscreant teen divas — are pretty easy to pick on.

They operate a tough, dangerous business that still conjures black-and-white images from our schoolbooks of smudged-faced men in hard hats working in grim, dark caves deep underground and dying of black lung or in a collapse. The mine owner is not a sympathetic character.

So in the wake of the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster, Bob Murray, the owner of the mine, was a big, fat target. He didn't help himself with his first press conference, when he wandered Magoo-like into topics ranging from global warming to the media to union organizers to excuses for the collapse of the mine that might deflect any culpability he might have.

Not the time or the place.

He was not a sympathetic character, and he did himself a favor when he dropped out of sight for a time. He was ridiculed, lampooned and criticized in the media and mining community. He was easy pickings.

Too easy. When Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. jumped into the fray belatedly, it sounded a lot like piling on.

"I'm not going to get into the mine owner other than to say that I thought the way the families were treated was unconscionable," said the governor, who should have quit talking after saying he wasn't going to talk about the mine owner.

He said more. "There ought to be some modicum of respect for their human dignity in those cases and what (the families) are experiencing," he told KUED TV.

Huntsman was playing Monday morning quarterback, and he was running with it in the open field now.

He said there must be some better way "out there" to rescue the miners "that somebody isn't considering," but he was clearly guessing on this and offered nothing specific.

At one point, Huntsman wouldn't even dignify Murray by using his name — "If it takes every dollar this guy has in his bank account, he needs to bring closure to this darn thing. We've got families of six good people who are currently sitting in that mine."

Was this the time or place? Did we need him to state the obvious?

It was a little early for the blame game, and clearly by now Murray was already under enough pressure, from trying to find the miners, to dead rescuers, to attending to the needs of the families, to managing his damaged communication with the public.

Murray responded to the governor by claiming his comments were politically motivated; it was difficult to refute the charge. If they weren't politically motivated, if the governor wasn't trying to score points with the public, then why didn't he handle this privately with Murray?