Idaho's Capitol is a political cocoon where facts and reality are filtered out. So when Idaho lawmakers became infatuated with former Utah lawmaker Ken Ivory's notion that the state could compel Uncle Sam to part with more than 30 million acres of federal land, they plowed right ahead. But as a legislative public lands task force headed by Rep. Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, and Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, has begun venturing outside that cloistered world, reality keeps getting in the way. Monday, leaders of Idaho's Indian tribes came out against such a transfer and they hold some trump cards. Their treaties extend access to federal lands outside the formal reservations. These rights include hunting, fishing and sacred sites. Add to that a body of legal precedents and evolving national political and moral sympathy with the plight of America's native people/Marty Trillhaase, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

Question: Is there any non-Tea Party type person out there who believes the state of Idaho should control federal lands within its boundaries?