Herbert needs to start taking tough political stands

Two items today: Gov. Gary Herbert's propensity to sit on the fence and how GOP legislators may fight against the citizen initiative petitions.

I think the newly installed governor is a nice guy. And he certainly has as much political experience as — or more than — other governors when they came into office.

But it would behoove Herbert to start taking some tough political stands and speak up for what he believes in.

The biggest charge against Herbert is that he's a wimp — doesn't want to offend anyone.

Now, being a wimp is not necessarily bad. I've tried to be a wimp all my life — but my big mouth (or typewriter) seems to get me in trouble.

Americans — even Utahns, who really do like to get along with others — admire a leader.

Webster defines a leader as "A person who has commanding authority or influence." It defines leading as "providing direction or guidance."

Being a leader can get a politician in trouble, especially if one yells "all forward" and charges off only to look back and see no one is following.

But citizens also don't respect an officeholder who seems always to be saying: "Well, that's a good idea, I'll think about it. Why don't you lead out on it and I'll see how it goes?"

If you always let others walk ahead of you to step on the land mines, you'll survive. But voters will wonder why you are their leader in the first place, if you really don't lead.

Herbert clearly wants to make friends, not opponents.

And so far he has declined to take a stand on two citizen petition initiatives — both opposed by conservative GOP legislators, but both of which are overwhelmingly supported by the public.

One initiative deals with legislative ethics, the other with redrawing legislative district boundaries every 10 years after a U.S. Census.

It may be a difficult political call for Herbert, but citizens deserve to know how he feels about the initiatives.

And speaking of the initiatives, GOP legislators who find horror in the initiatives' language are wondering how they can publicly fight the measures without looking self-serving.

I don't believe the Legislature as a whole, or any single lawmaker, is venal. But when a legislator feels he must stand up and say: "I'm not a crook," well, you know how that worked out for Richard Nixon.