JEERS ... to Idaho House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale. The ethically challenged speaker had a banner year. Here's a sample:

• He single-handedly blocked the House Revenue and Taxation Committee from even exploring the idea of joining a multi-state consortium pledged to help states collect the millions in sales tax due on Internet and catalog transactions.
• After all but looking the other way at tax scofflaw and timber thief Rep. Phil Hart's transgressions, Denney pushed through new rules to keep preliminary investigations of legislator ethics violations out of the public view.
• Which was convenient, considering the next blow-up involved Denney's colleague, State Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Loertscher, R-Iona. A bill that might have hampered Loertscher's side of a road abandonment dispute in Bonneville County went from the House Transportation Committee, where it belonged, to Loertscher's desk drawer, where it disappeared. Denney arranged the re-routing.

Read all of Marty Trillhaase's year-end Cheers & Jeers column here.

Question: Which Idaho political leader would you Cheer or Jeer for his/her performance in 2011?