Let Racists Have March On U.S. 95

Rep. Don Pischner is still steaming over a published list of Idaho’s 100 most influential people that included Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler at No. 93. “That’s just dirt. That isn’t right,” Pischner said. Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene, would rather draw attention to the need to fix U.S. Highway 95 south of Coeur d’Alene than to the local racists. So he says he’s got a plan: Get Butler and his minions to march on the dangerous stretch of roadway that runs from Mica to Belgrove. Maybe that way, he said, the road “could really get some attention.”

A little too good at their jobs

When the state Transportation Department decided to use state prison inmates to handle some data entry on driver’s licenses and vehicle titles, it ran into a little problem.

“They knew enough about people that they were able to go into the system and suspend people’s driver’s licenses,” state Transportation Director Dwight Bower told the Legislature’s budget committee recently. “The ones that they suspended, and the titles, were of employees of Corrections. Those employees were pretty upset.”

Needless to say, inmates aren’t being asked to handle that job anymore. “We felt it was probably hard for them to do anything improper, and we were wrong,” Bower said. “They’ve been doing license plates for us forever.”

Taught his child well

When Sen. Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, waxed eloquent - at great length - about the many sterling qualifications of Board of Education chairman Harold Davis, he treated his fellow senators to testimony that, among other qualities, Mr. Davis never swears and when Idaho’s speed limit was 55 mph, he never exceeded it. Harold Davis, of course, is the senator’s dad.

Buildings are different

Opponents of contractor licensing have been snickering over a mock bill drafted by Rep. Bill Sali, R-Meridian, laying out a licensing law for legislators. The “bill” would set up a licensing board, require proof of insurance and require a detailed list of campaign promises so promise-keeping can be checked. The only problem: Sali carried a bill last year to license acupuncturists. And Idaho already licenses everyone from barbers to landscape architects. Just not building contractors.

That pesky free-country thing

Rep. Wayne Meyer was only a little sheepish when he explained why the House Education Committee decided to delete the last sentence of his bill requiring education about citizenship in all public schools. Meyer, R-Rathdrum, had taken it a step further, adding a clause detailing what can’t be talked about in schools. On his list: “Advocating the disregard of the rule of law or to advocate tolerance of acts contrary to the rule of law.” Yep, he admitted afterward, the problem with that part was the good old First Amendment.

They’re that old

Coeur d’Alene chamber of commerce types had a toughie for the legislators they put on the spot at their annual luncheon and mock game show this week. Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden, got it wrong, despite help from Sen. Darrel Deide, R-Caldwell. Clark guessed that the average age of school buildings that are substandard in Idaho was 64, as old as Rep. Frank Bruneel, R-Lewiston. The correct answer: 59, as old as Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo.

The name game

Rep. Margaret Henbest, D-Boise, had been talking about autopsies for more than an hour, so that may explain why she responded to a question from Rep. Jeff Alltus, R-Hayden, by addressing him as “Representative Alltopsy.”

After the thunderous laughter died down, Alltus shot back that he didn’t mind at all, “Representative Honeybest.”

North-South Notes runs every other Saturday. To reach Betsy Z. Russell, call (208) 336-2854, fax to 336-0021 or e-mail to bzrussell@rmci.net.