This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Congressman Jason Chaffetz' rise from a multi-level marketing agent to a candidate for speaker of the U.S. House, which would make him second in line to the presidency if successful, is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma — with apologies to Winston Churchill.

Chaffetz' assent through the political ranks has been a combination of luck, bluster, bungling and just being in the right place at the right time.

He is the real life version of Chauncey Gardner, the Peter Sellers character in the movie "Being There" who accidentally finds himself at the seat of political power.

The way Chaffetz has achieved such lofty goals is a reflection of how messed up the political landscape is in today's tea party world, where a blowhard like Donald Trump can be the Republican Party front-runner without articulating a single policy idea other than deporting everybody and beating up the bad guys.

Chaffetz, on his pathway to Congress, has been forced out of at least one job and has left a bevy of enemies and detractors in his wake.

But whenever he commits a public and embarrassing gaffe, he gets promoted.

Chaffetz announced he would run for speaker right after he had become a national joke by not understanding a graph or where it came from during his attempts to humiliate Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards at a congressional hearing he chaired.

That is typical of his career: Look stupid and then seek higher office.

Chaffetz worked at NuSkin in 2003 when political veteran Chuck Warren, who had been tapped to be the campaign manager for Jon Huntsman Jr.'s run for governor, asked him to join the team as the public relations expert.

Shortly after Chaffetz signed on, Warren resigned from the campaign for personal reasons and Chaffetz ascended to campaign manager. It couldn't have been too hard of a job to get Huntsman elected that year. His name and his presence were probably enough.

But after Huntsman's victory, Chaffetz was rewarded by being named chief of staff.

Then all hell broke loose.

One of Huntsman's first acts as governor was to fire several dozen veteran employees of the State Community and Economic Development Department. Huntsman wanted to change the direction of economic development to more of a public-private collaboration. But the way it was done caused havoc. And Chaffetz was in charge of how it was done.

The employees were summoned to a meeting where they told they were fired. They were not allowed to go back to their desks to retrieve their personal items and instead were escorted out of the building by armed guards.

Next, Chaffetz angered most of the legislators by not allowing them to meet with the governor. They had to meet with him. At the time, I spoke with then-House Speaker Greg Curtis who complained: "I'm the speaker of the House and I can't meet with the governor."

Chaffetz quickly earned the title of "little dictator" during his reign and his overbearing tactics quickly earned him a number of enemies on Huntsman's staff.

After numerous complaints from the staff, Chaffetz was forced to resign, saying at the time he was pursuing "opportunities in the private sector."

He managed a trust portfolio for a time, then decided to run for Congress against five-term incumbent Chris Cannon.

To Chaffetz' credit, he started out with little name ID and practically no money. But he worked the delegates hard, listened to their positions on issues and made those positions his own. And he gave a great speech at the Republican State Convention.

But his campaign tactics not only left Cannon with a bad taste in his mouth, the third candidate, David Leavitt, threw his support behind Cannon after he was eliminated because of his stated disgust with Chaffetz.

Once elected to Congress, Chaffetz eagerly accepted the role of brat.

Following instructions of House leadership to interrupt Democratic members during floor debate, Chaffetz would repeatedly blurt out "point of order" when a Democrat began to speak. The idea was to rattle the speaker and make him look confused. When one Democrat kept talking over Chaffetz' interruptions, it was Chaffetz who lost his cool.

Chaffetz, more than most, hammered the word "Benghazi" over and over, which may be why he was one of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's greatest critics when McCarthy accidentally said on cable TV what everybody knew but the Republicans denied: That the Benghazi committee was a political front to discredit Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Now McCarthy has dropped out of the race for speaker, creating another odd opportunity for Chaffetz, who seems to grate on everybody. —