Cook's wrath and firing of staffers aren't new news

Rep. Merrill Cook is in the news for firing or forcing the resignations of key staff mem-bers.

Cook also lost his temper and yelled at State Republican Party executive director Spencer Stokes just before the Nov. 3 election because Cook's name wasn't included in a massive computerized telephone operation - Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch were on the recorded messages to loyal Republican voters.Some apparently think this is amazing - that Cook loses his temper and that politicians fire people from their staffs.

Perhaps some perspective here is helpful.

I remember 1985 when Cook ran against then-Salt Lake Mayor Palmer DePaulis. I covered parts of that race, but mainly the Cook campaign was handled by then-City Hall reporter Chuck Gates, who is now this newspaper's sports editor.

Cook, in this, his first big race, got into a regular habit of calling up Gates and various Deseret News editors yelling and swearing about the job Gates was doing. As you might recall, Cook was pumping his own money into that race. Ultimately, Cook would spend half a million dollars of his own cash.

Such personal spending on a mayor's race was unheard of back then. While some mayoral races have exceeded such spending since, it was also a record for campaign expenditures.

Clearly, Cook's spending was a legitimate issue and Gates reported on it.

There were times when I thought Cook might be losing his control. It's never very smart to call up and yell at reporters. But I've had some politicians or candidates do that. It's not rare. But Cook's tirades were notable for their frequency and fervor.

Cook learned a tough lesson that year, however. Keep your cool in public; don't alienate people who buy ink by the truckload.

And while I and other Deseret News reporters have, over the years, had some difficult conversations with Cook, by and large he's kept his temper under control, even in the light of losing some pretty tough races and ballot initiatives.

On Cook's handling of his staff, it may be heavy-handed, even unfair. But congressional staffs are often treated unfairly, even cruelly.

One former congressman known publicly as a nice guy used to give some of his former staffers terrible personal recommendations, and the people had a hard time getting other jobs in Washington, D.C.

Another former Utah congressman had terrible staff problems, he'd blame them for this and that, there was always turn-over. Some of the staff, once gone, criticized the congressman privately and publicly - as former Cook employees are doing now. (A note here to current congressional staff members: Don't send nasty e-mails blasting the boss; you may live to regret it).

The fact is, working in many, if not most, congressional offices is a high-stress job. As a staff person you are dealing with a big ego of the officeholder, constituents are calling up making demands or just complaining, and human nature being what it is, the congressman doesn't want to take the heat.

Much better to blame the staff, the administration or the press than accept personal responsibility, seems to be the code even in the best-run congressional offices.

And often the staff is blamed for not stopping the congressman from saying something stupid in public even when they tried to do just that.

At one national political convention, a Utah congressman was very upset over something his presidential nominee was doing. Leaks flowed to me and other members of the press that we should talk to the Congress member - we'd get some good stuff.

But when he showed up at the convention hall that night, he was all smiles, not upset at all. What had happened, I wondered?

Talking privately to his staff I found out they had literally locked the member in his hotel room all afternoon, ordered in pizzas and movie videos until the member had vented so much bile and gotten control of himself that he was fit for public presentation six hours later.

The member apparently didn't learn much from that. Several years later after he was caught on tape calling opposing party members names, he blamed his staff for not stopping him from saying it.

Cook may have mistreated his staff and cussed out Stokes. But he's not any more crazy than he was in 1985. He may have fired some good staffers that he should have kept. He may fire some more.

Voters still picked Cook in the 2nd Congressional District. And if voters don't know the real Cook - after 10 years of running public campaigns - then they probably don't know any of their elected officials.