Idahoans have stopped listening to Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter. A severe case of lame duckhood has settled in. After barely hanging on in last year's GOP primary against an underfunded opponent, the third-term governor's job approval rating of 47 percent puts him in Barack Obama territory. Nobody even pretends Otter wields much influence over the Legislature. He tends to sit back, wait for what arrives on his desk and then takes credit. And it's been almost a decade since conservatives ditched Otter's Republican Party chairman, Kirk Sullivan, and took control of the GOP machinery from the chief executive. So what's Otter's solution? Shaking down corporate Idaho/Marty Trillhaase, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

Thoughts?