I don't think that word means what you think it means

On the heels of Sen. Orrin Hatch's "economic forum" at UVU that was more a chance for like-minded people to act like they're at a high school football game, we get this gem:

Senator Orrin Hatch and Governor Gary Herbert are hosting a forum to consider the impact that cap and trade legislation would have on Utah consumers.

Now, cap and trade is plenty controversial. And I'm all for full-throated debate on the matter. But let's take a look at the list of participants:

Governor Herbert; Senator Hatch; Provo Mayor Lewis Billings; Randy Parker, Utah Farm Bureau; Lee Peacock, Utah Petroleum Association; and other representatives of the commodity industries impacted by this legislation.

Can we please drop the use of "forum" and just call it a bitch session? Sen. Hatch is clearly running scared from someone — Jason Chaffetz maybe? — and is campaigning two years early as he watches Sen. Bob Bennett do his best Titanic impersonation.

Hatch has just about set off all the conservative dopamine secreters now: federal meddling with the economy, cap and trade, health care. He even voted against now-Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor with excuses that would have been more valid on a number of justices he actually voted for in the past.

Now we learn that he has landed himself a donation from the mother of all Republican mothers: Sarah Palin.

But hey, if you're feeling blue about cap and trade and the fact that it will destroy us all, here's the If You Go:

WHEN: Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 11:00 a.m.

WHERE: State Auditorium in the Utah State Capitol Office Building