At the 11th hour of the 2002 Utah legislative session, state lawmakers were not working on some way to boost funding within the education budget, or trying to pass some social welfare package?

They were trying desperately to slap U President Bernie Machen on the hand.

In a petty and vindictive bit of maneuvering, the Legislature feverishly spent its last bit of time debating Senate Bill 147, a bit of legislation sponsored by Sen. Michael Waddoups, R?Salt Lake.

The bill, which sought to cut Machen’s pay in half for his refusal to abandon a longstanding U policy of prohibiting students and faculty members from bringing firearms to campus, was little more than a misguided waste of time and effort that fortunately wound up where it belonged all along?in the garbage.

Though the Senate passed the proposal by a 15-11 margin, the House killed it with a 37-34 vote against the measure. Still, it should never have got that far.

Though Waddoups claimed the bill was not aimed specifically at Machen or the U, citing thinly veiled suggestions of punishing university administrators who support policies that violate state statutes, his motives could hardly be more transparent.

Machen will not bend the U’s policy to comply with state Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s ruling that the Legislature alone has the power to prohibit where firearms may be carried, and Waddoups, who authored that particular law and has made no secret of the fact that he carries a concealed weapon, has his pants in a twist over it.

The ironic thing about it, though, is that Shurtleff is comfortable with Machen’s decision to resolve this complex issue founded on legal interpretation in the place where it belongs?a court of law.

Waddoups and a few of his cronies sought to make the state Capitol, the battleground on the subject and, in the process, grossly misused what precious little time they had to focus on passing laws that actually serve some useful function.

Thankfully, even if only by the slimmest of margins, enough of Waddoups’ colleagues managed to recognize the inanity of it all and do the right thing.