As Huckabee explained this week, Arkansas (along with a number of other states) has an independent ethics commission, to which anyone can make a claim. The former governor said he had to answer any number of complaints to the commission, including his wife's party.

Utah has no ethics commission.

There is no formal oversight to what the governor or his top aides do, short of a criminal charge.

The Utah House and Senate each have member-staffed ethics committees. But citizens can't make a complaint. A formal ethics investigation is made only if THREE House members or senators make a complaint against a fellow colleague. That, of course, rarely happens — even if there is a severe ethical lapse, routinely there aren't three legislators willing to make a formal complaint.

The other branch of government — the judiciary — is controlled by the Utah Supreme Court. There's a Judicial Conduct Commission, but it holds most of its meetings in secret and the public doesn't even know if a complaint is made against a judge unless formal disciplinary action is taken by the high court, which also rarely happens. We don't have head-to-head elections of judges here — the governor nominates, the Utah Senate confirms. And even the public information provided on judges in their retention elections is difficult to understand and, thus, often worthless.

So, while Utah citizens have many reasons to be thankful this holiday season, our politicians, top government officials, legislators and judges should also be thankful — thankful that citizens know so little about their shortcomings, especially on the ethical side of the ledger.

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