This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Utah's partisan blowhard Congressman Jason Chaffetz's call for the impeachment of the Internal Revenue Service director Tuesday came in the wake of some Utah news that might suggest some problems with his judgment.

Chaffetz has gleefully leapt into the role of Republican assassin while in the House, going out of his way to attack anything Democratic, throwing tantrums at witnesses as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and often making a fool out of himself.

His behavior in state government should have been a clue to what boorish conduct we would witness from his perch in Washington, D.C.

Chaffetz, through a series of quirky events, advanced from a multi-level marketing job to chief of staff to newly elected Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. in 2005.

The governor had some ideas about a public-private partnership in the area of economic development, which may have been meritorious in its concept, but Chaffetz, with his new-found authority, managed to turn it into havoc.

On Chaffetz's orders, 35 veteran employees of the State Division of Economic Development were herded into a room and fired on the spot. They were then escorted from the building by armed guards as though they were suspected terrorists.

Suddenly, there was no state economic development office to speak of.

From the rubble of that bureaucratic massacre emerged the Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCU), a non-profit funded largely by taxpayer money. Because the private sector, using public funds, can do it better.

Then, right around the time Chaffetz was saber-rattling about the IRS chief and calling for the ultimate punishment for what many have called baseless allegations, the EDCU managed to embarrass Utah.

The corporation, with a board comprised of a virtual Who's Who of business intelligentsia in the state, was stripped of its non-profit tax status because it forgot to file tax returns for five years.

The IRS has since reinstated the non-profit tax exemption, but the mistake still was glaring and legislators have called for an audit.

What makes this all relevant to Chaffetz is his continued over-the-top harangues at various targets that seem as pointless as throwing 35 loyal state employees out of a building under armed guard 11 years ago.

He wants IRS director John Koskinen impeached by Congress for alleged misdeeds even his fellow Republicans, including Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, have said do not rise to the level of impeachment.

Before his latest tirade against the IRS, Chaffetz embarrassed himself and the state he represents by belittling the national president of Planned Parenthood when she testified before his committee, using thoroughly debunked information as his weapons.

He also made a spectacle of himself by asking Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards a question, then screaming her down as she began to answer. A graph he produced that he purported showed Planned Parenthood's breast screenings were decreasing while abortions were increasing turned out to be completely bogus.

Add to all that his recent attempts to deflect blame for the lead-polluted water in Flint, Mich., from the Republican governor and put it on the backs of the Environmental Protection Agency, and you have a child-like actor pretending to fill his big-boy pants.

The former employees of the State Division of Economic Development must feel some satisfaction. —