Why Kempthorne isn’t on stimulus panel…

For those of us who’ve been wondering why, when Gov. Butch Otter tapped three former governors for his stimulus committee, he didn’t ask former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne - whose full-time gig as the nation’s Interior Secretary recently ended - Times-News reporter Jared Hopkins supplies the answer today on his Capitol Confidential blog here . Otter told Hopkins he wasn’t sure where Kempthorne is these days. “I didn’t not invite him – I just didn’t know where to get in touch with him,” he said.