Attempted Censure Suffers Pratfall

It turns out the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee doesn’t have the authority to censure four North Idaho legislators for voting against their wishes. “Sorry I don’t have room for discussion on this,” said Chairman Neil Oliver. “I find the motion is out of order.” The central committee spent about an hour Tuesday night wrangling over whether or not to censure four North Idaho legislators for creating a state health-care exchange, only to be stopped dead in its tracks when Committeeman Luke Sommer, an expert in parliamentary procedure, pointed out that the committee could not censure anyone outside the committee itself. “If we can censure someone outside this body we could censure the president of the United States,” he said, adding there is nothing in the committee’s bylaws or Robert’s Rules of Order that would allow the move. Committeewoman Tina Jacobson (pictured) passionately put forward the resolution to censure Rep. Frank Henderson, Rep. Luke Malek, Sen. John Goedde and Rep. Ed Morse/ Jeff Selle , Coeur d’Alene Press. More here.

Question: Are you surprised by the outcome?