"Lobbyists play on fears, emotions to sell their agendas." ... the Statehouse is more like a dealer's showroom: It's less a place where things are made than a place where things are sold. And like any good salesman, lobbyists know how to play on their customers' psychological vulnerabilities. The Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, for example, has done an outstanding job selling its initiative bill as a "rural fairness" issue ... This skillful, if misleading, sales pitch proved quite potent ... Tapping into the Legislature's rural inferiority complex helped steer the debate down irrelevant byways"/William L. Spence, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

• H/T: Kestrel West Morning Memo

DFO: This tactic even buffaloed an otherwise good legislator, Sen. Shawn Keough, R- Sandpoint.

Question: Can you think of any bill aproved -- or heading toward approval -- that's worse than the Farm Bureau/Idaho Legislature's attack on the initiative/referendum process?