Micron Search Wasn’t Charade; It Left Egg On Journalists’ Faces

All those people who thought Micron’s $1.3 billion expansion search was a charade should stand in the corner. The microchip giant has selected a short list of three communities that doesn’t include an Idaho site. Idaho Statesman business writer Paul Beebe in Boise and this editorialist were among the doubters. Beebe recently wrote: “Micron Technology Inc. will expand in Boise or Nampa. None of the other 11 communities vying for its new factory has a chance. How do I know? Simple. Micron has maneuvered itself into a box with only one exit. By expanding somewhere else, Micron risks alienating the Legislature and losing what it really wants - an engineering school at Boise State University.” Oh well, with that kind of accuracy, maybe Paul and I can catch on as TV weather forecasters.

The bums don’t want to be thrown out

The presumptuous Idaho Senate is at it again. Recently, senators showed their arrogance by rejecting a House-approved bill that would have required them to vote on their own pay raises. Now, state Sen. Sue Reents, D-Boise, says she thinks legislators should serve for four instead of two years. She apparently believes that what’s good enough for the U.S. House of Representatives isn’t good enough for the Legislature. But a short term makes representatives far more accountable than a longer one does. A politician can get away with a lot of mischief in the early years of a four or six-year term. Constituents forget; news reporters change. Send this one to the circular file.

`Slick Willie’ should learn from Fox

President Clinton and Idaho state Schools Superintendent Anne Fox are having an awful time with appointments. Both should spend more time checking backgrounds of prospective nominees. Fox, however, knows when to cut her losses and has fired two embarrassing appointments, including Chief Deputy Terry Haws. “Slick Willie” should have dropped surgeon general nominee Dr. Henry Foster. Foster, who appears to be a toneddown version of outspoken former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, can’t remember from day to day how many abortions he has performed. It’s hard to believe AIDS, sex education and abortion are the only public health issues facing our nation and that Clinton intentionally would inflame the abortion debate by selecting Foster. Sure, abortion is legal, but so is the picketing of abortion clinics. I don’t think pro-choicers would have accepted someone who once had marched around with photos of aborted fetuses.