Idaho GOP in decline

Idaho’s Republican Party is sinking down the same ideological hole as its national party, the same hole from which U.S. Rep. Arlen Specter rescued himself by donning a life jacket labeled “Democrat,” and about which conservative commentator David Brooks bemoans, “This hole is growing deeper!”

In Idaho, the sinking has happened in the Idaho Legislature, where right-wing representatives blockaded progress by refusing to compromise with Gov. Otter and the Senate on fuel tax and license fee raises.

But these aren’t the point. While the blockade is touted as “no more taxes during a recession,” examination reveals that the representatives’ posturing is pure power play (which you and I are funding at $30,000 per day).

The fight began last June at the IRP convention. There, the far-right contingent set up their first blockade – to reject Otter’s pick for chairperson, Kirk Sullivan, in favor of further-to-the-right Norm Semanko. This fight for supremacy continues under a rubric of taxes and fees.

What can we do? Pay the bill. When a legislature is as lopsidedly one-sided as ours, rational people on neither side can influence the blind-headed ideologues digging the hole.

Borg Hendrickson

Kooskia, Idaho