CRIME WATCH : Love’s Not That Blind

The people of Utah’s 2nd Congressional District deserve better than the tearful denials and sad tales of blind love that Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz served up in Monday’s 4 1/2-hour news conference. They deserve some straight talk from the official and her estranged husband, Joe Waldholtz, who also was her campaign treasurer. Straight talk about missing checks, suspect loan documents, fictitious family trusts, false campaign statements, bogus tax returns. They also deserve a new representative in Congress.

Waldholtz, who is refusing to step down, has provided no real answers about the financial shenanigans that may have helped win her a House seat. On Thursday she testified behind closed doors in Washington before a grand jury investigating a $1.7-million check-kiting scheme involving the Waldholtzes’ bank accounts.

When the couple’s troubles became public last month, Joe Waldholtz disappeared, surrendering six days later to the FBI, which is probing his involvement in his wife’s 1994 campaign finances and other financial activities. He and authorities are trying to negotiate a plea bargain under which he would testify against the congresswoman.

Enid Waldholtz’s defense that love made her buy Joe’s stories of checks lost to thieves or eaten by a dog strains credibility. If the House member, an experienced corporate litigator, was naive enough to buy excuses too lame to fool even a fourth-grader, she lacks the capability to serve her constituents well. She should go.