Utah Governor Leavitt, with his "Enlibra" fake-out,
is headed to Washington to take over the Environmental Protection Agency.
And that's not a good thing.
Though enlibra sounds like some ancient principle derived
from Caesar Augustus, its origins can be traced to a meeting a few years
ago in the Utah governor's office. According to one former staffer who
attended
the meeting, Leavitt came into the room and said, "Let's invent a word.
Let's invent a word that means balance and reasonableness in environmental
debate." After
some informal discussions, the result was enlibra — the type of trendy
term that could promise a better night's sleep, better sex or, in this
case, a "balanced" environmental
policy. It may be the first manufactured political trademark.Leavitt found
that the phrases "dirty air for higher corporate
profits" or "fewer trees mean more roads" were not instant sellers. However,
calling for enlibra was something that few could contest — or understand,
for that matter. If anyone objected, Leavitt would simply respond with
an element of sympathy that they simply did not understand enlibra. They
were "unenlibrated." [Jonathan Turley, L. A. Times]
And another story:
Larry Young, the executive director of the Southern Utah
Wilderness Alliance, said the governor has never been willing to use enlibra
principles
to resolve the perennial dispute over Utah wilderness. "He invites people
to the table who he knows are going to agree with the decisions he's going
to reach and calls everyone else an extremist," Young
said.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Hal! I didn't know what the hell that word meant. The administration's record on the environment is pathetic, probably its weakest area, and it doesn't sound like it's going to get better, you're right.
2 - Hal Pawluk
What it really means is b-s-s-c-am (kind of like getting into Iraq :-)
And it seems like Utah in particular "Hatches" a lot of interesting things, like Orrin's "Schwarzenmendment", and land swaps where the state gets property worth much more than the feds get (from the Casper, Wyoming Star-Tribune 7/25/2003):
3 - Eric Olsen
yes, and I believe there is a peculiar religion based there as well