I was in Salt Lake last weekend and got together with some old friends from high school. My friend's baby brother played football at BYU and had some stories to tell about Congressman Chaffetz, being a MINO (mormon in name only). Anybody know if Chaffetz did not go on a mission and why?

He wasn't raised LDS. He came to BYU on a football scholarship and joined the "church" while there. I don't know his whole story, but he might have just "converted" for his wife.

Must have had too many concussions.

So Jason got baptized in 1988 before graduation and before he met his lovely TBM wife. He served as Democrat Presidential Candidate Mike Dukakis's campagne co-charman for Utah while a senior at BYU. He did not serve a mission.

Putting this in context for those of you who were too young to experience this time. Ezra Taft Benson was prophet and the command was that every young man of missionary age should go on a mission or they would go to hell. At BYU converts were pretty much forced to go on a mission. I had a companion who attended BYU and converted and he was "pushed" to go and he was 24 years old, I had a zone leader who also played sports at BYU and he was forced to go after he converted at age 24. The only people who slipped from this were either phyically unable or had severe moral issues that involved unspeakable acts. Maybe being a democrat at that time disqualified you.

According to the lore and legend of Rep. Chaffetz, he had been "drifting right" for years after starting college in Utah, worked for Dukakis' (hopeless) Utah campaign in 1988 more out of family connection than anything else, and switched to being a Republican in 1990 after -- wait for it -- meeting former president Ronald Reagan when RR visited the Nu Skin corporate headquarters in Provo, where Chaffetz was then a lowly young hire in the marketing department.

That must have been quite the conversion experience, as Reagan touched the hand of Chaffetz and the power went out from him.

By 2003-4 Chaffetz was running John Huntsman's gubernatorial campaign, then served as his chief of staff for a year, left to go make some more money, ran for Congress in 2008 and here he is, Provo's man on Capitol Hill! A charmed career.

Right.
I mean, it couldn't possibly have anything to do with the notion that a democrat would have a much harder time getting elected in Utah than a republican, could it? ;-)

Jason Chaffetz is half-Jewish, on his father's side, and his mother was a Christian Scientist who later became a Mormon. Chaffetz went to BYU as a non-Mormon on an athletic scholarship, and set records as a place kicker that still stand, I think. He converted while at BYU, married a BIC Mormon fellow-student whom he met during his senior year, went to work for the big MLM Nu Skin out of college (1989) in its PR department, and the rest is history. He could have delayed his marriage for two years to go on a mission, but chose not to, and I guess he's been a prize convert anyway.

My friend who had been at Chavettz's town hall was laughing that he accused those in attendance that they were out-of-staters, when he was originally a liberal California Democrat, in fact started his political life as a relative of one of the biggest democrat losers in the history of presidential races, and joined the church and switched to be a republican so he could fit in in the MLM world and Utah politics. Apparently his wife is connected to Arizona political families but I did not follow that thread.

Talk about going from the frying pan into the fire. I'd love to have a conversation with her. Wow!

Gotta love discretionary conversion...like the gospel...it is what tommy says it is...hell with those joe and briggy guys...how convenient is that...chameleons who can change course so fast it causes whiplash and mini concussions...most politicos seem to have this gift...whatever it takes to get elected...id guess thats how mormism got where it is today...lose our money if we dont dump plygmy...done sort of...football teams wont play byu if we dont accept black people...done sort of.....don't like those unpleasant unchangeable death rituals in the temple...done sort of....don't like getting your bare junk oiled...done sort of....don't like onepiece frumpy unchangeable garments..done sort of...some days i think tommy would trade widows for bullet proof audis if there was a market...seems going on a mission is only important for the little people especially to wretched places....about like having a passle of junior tithe-payers..two sacred cows we wont sacrifice are coffee and tithing...thats right from gawd right there....no stipends for you dupes who mission...but we do have unpaid positions in tithe collections and middle management...whose your grandpa again...oh well why didnt you say so...step over here into the going somewhere upwardly mobile stipend line...just say you joined the navy...no one questions patriotism...even if the war was a couple weeks from over...we also offer a nice selection of upper level positions in management of educational facilities to those of proper lineage...next stop...stipend

I doubt it. I don't think he is a human.

and that 'matters' .... How?

so he can get the politically connected wife, and votes from the Mormon Majority who keep him in power. LDS money/political power at it's finest, most dishonest and loathsome example.

I don't know, but he sure packs a pistol in his Mormon knickers!