Get Off Cade’S Battered Case

First, Greg Cade, Kootenai County appraisal supervisor, lost out in the high-stakes assessor’s race that saw his boss defeated. Then, he bolted to a job with the state Tax Commission. Now, Commissioner Ron Rankin is calling on Gov. Phil Batt to investigate Cade’s hiring. Rankin claims Cade was a disruptive force with the county and will hold a vendetta against Kootenai County. C’mon. For years, Cade did his job well enough to satisfy the late, respected four-term assessor Tom Moore. Cade’s been kicked around enough. He deserves a chance to get on with life.

Lowlifes come in many different forms

Can there be a lower form of life than a travel agent who scams clients by issuing bogus tickets? Actually, there is. A lower form is a dishonest agent, like Keva D. Olsen, 36, who blamed everyone but herself when she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She should be made to sleep, ticketless, in airports around the world for the next two years to learn how her stranded victims felt. But her sentence of two years in prison and a $193,000 penalty will do … Another subspecies of lowlife is any man who’d hit any woman for any reason. Period. Then, there’s James Bedard, 37, of Spirit Lake, who’s charged with knocking his wife, Margaret, into a coma from which she may not recover. If found guilty of aggravated assault or possibly murder, he should have the book thrown at him - and I don’t mean “Love Story” … Please give WSU’s Kappa Sigma house a Hot Potato’s send off for being shut after violating probation from May’s party-turned-riot. Ready? Pffffht.

Second verse, same as the first

Stop us if you’ve heard this before. North Idaho College basketball coach Hugh Watson suspends a star player for subpar academic work, then reconsiders after the tearful player and teammates approach him. Shawn Myrick, 1996? Nope. Rashaad Hines, 1998. The tears and an 18-point average will do it every time … Call it shoreline envy. Mr. Potatohead can’t get excited about the Land Board raising money for education by hiking public leases on Priest and Payette lakes as much as 300 percent, beginning in Y2K. First, I can’t afford the cabin sites at the current rate. Then, most leaseholders are out-of-staters. Translation: Sic ‘em … CdA Mayor Steve Judy deserves good grades for surviving a gauntlet of sticky first-year issues.

But the collective bargaining fiasco that landed in court proves employee relations aren’t his honor’s forte. Letter grade? Pick one of Mr. Potatohead’s first two initials.