The City Club of Boise has an interesting double bill for its luncheon today: Republican Congressman Mike Simpson, and Democratic Congressman Walt Minnick, at a forum dubbed, "Red Elephant, Blue Dog, A Conversation." Sitting collegially side by side, the two said they do work together despite coming from different parties. "You come from Idaho, you only have two representatives from Idaho, so you'd better work together," said Simpson, who represents Idaho's 2nd District. "Walt and I have been able to do that." Said Minnick, who represents the 1st District, "I could not have a finer colleague." He noted that Simpson was kind enough to show him around - even showing him how to vote, so he could vote for a bill Simpson was sponsoring.

Simpson commented, "One of the things that concerns me now is we are not working towards bipartisan solutions." The Democratic majority in Congress has continued to escalate a partisan rift that began with Republicans when they were the majority, Simpson said, tweaking rules and so forth to block bipartisan debate. "We've got to de-escalate this," Simpson said. "Somehow, we've got to back off this and get back to where we actually debate issues and listen to both sides."