Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter issues a proclamation ordering a special session of the state legislature at the state Capitol building today in Boise. Present were Director of Health and Welfare Dick Armstrong, left, and Lt. Gov. Brad Little, right. (AP Photo/Otto Kitsinger)

The Idaho Statesman analyzes how a legislative perfect storm led to the Child Support mess that Idaho finds itself in:

How did it come to this? There was a good amount of hyperventilating over the committee’s vote. The usual Idaho tropes emerged: xenophobic anti-federal sentiment, religious ignorance, misappropriated constitutional claims, paranoia over international treaties, foreign tribunals and that hegemonic, deeply subversive entity, the United Nations. Among opponents, there were fevered warnings about Idaho’s possible subjugation to Islamic law and vows to stare down the bullying feds, who would emerge as the real villains by threatening to withhold aid for Idaho’s noncompliance. That’s the popular narrative, but there’s more to the story —– and less. What culminated in a committee’s slim, 11th-hour rejection of a largely procedural revision of uncontroversial federal code was in fact the confluence of factors that produced a perfect legislative storm. More here.

Question: Izzit just me -- or do you also notice that Idaho elected officials usually start belitting the federal gummint whenever they get in trouble or come up with some strange idea to do something unconstitutional?