Utah State Senator Chris Buttars has been reprimanded by his state party. (We wrote about this the other day.) The GOP out there in the busy bee state has decided not that Mr. Buttars is wrong in thinking that gays are the most significant threat to the US of A, far worse than armed terrorists, but that he didn’t raise his hand and take his turn while speaking. No, it isn’t because they disagree with Buttars. the Utah GOP evidently had an agreement with this numbnut that he’d keep his trap shut unless he got permission, especially when it comes to gays. From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Senate leaders disciplined Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, not for anti-gay comments he made in a recent interview, but because he violated a deal with leadership that he not talk about gay issues, a senator said Saturday.

“Most of what Senator Buttars said, I agree with,” Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said in a weekly Red Meat Radio program he hosts on K-TALK. “We as a Senate caucus had an agreement that because Sen. Buttars had become such a lightning rod on this issue, he would not be the spokesman on this issue, and basically he violated that agreement.”

Buttars was under fire for statements he made to a documentary filmmaker in which he compared homosexuals to radical Muslims, called them the greatest internal threat to America and said they had no morals.

Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, announced Friday that he was removing Buttars from two committees: the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee and the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee, both of which Buttars had chaired.

In making the announcement, Waddoups said he was trying to ensure the Senate runs smoothly, but also noted that “we agree with many of the things he said. … We stand four-square behind his right [to say what he wants].”

At no time did Waddoups mention that Buttars had actually been told he could not speak on gay and lesbian issues. But it was the breach of that directive that led to the reprimand, according to Stephenson.

I’m tempted to note that the Republican Party seems to be against free speech here. Let the guy speak, for Christ sake! Of course the reason they don’t want to let him speak is that even in conservative Utah Chris Buttars comes off as a whack job, and as a committee Chair he then makes the Republicans look, well, exactly what they are in Utah, a party of whack jobs. At least Chris Buttars is honest in his hate.