Trib: Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest

In his weekly Cheers & Jeers column, Opinion Editor Marty Trillhaase of the Lewiston Tribune gives JEERS to … to state Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg:

First there was “Dumb” - former Bonneville County GOP Chairman Doyle Beck who wired himself for sound. Next there was “Dumber” - Idaho GOP Chairman Steve Yates, who blabbed away while Beck surreptitiously recorded his every utterance. Now comes “Dumbest.” After witnessing Beck and Yates get in hot water, Nate - who teaches economics at the Mormon church-owned Brigham Young University-Idaho - took a concealed recording device to a fence-mending session with Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg. Hill had supported Nate’s opponent in the May 18 GOP primary, Madison County Republican Party Chairman Doug Ricks. Nate won by a 167-vote margin. Apparently struck by the tone of Nate’s questions, Hill asked if he was on tape. Nate admitted he was. The dialogue ended there.

When the Post Register’s Bryan Clark got wind of it, he asked for a copy of the recorded conversation under Idaho’s Public Records Act. Nate refused. The man with the hidden microphone accused the newspaper of violating his privacy. After everyone from House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, to House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, said that Nate had proven himself untrustworthy and possibly violated House ethics rules, Nate played the victim. On Facebook, he blasted the Legislature as a den of crooked politicians engaged in “lying,” “cheating,” cutting “backroom deals,” and “party politics, cronyism and betrayal of the public trust.” Choose your next comments carefully, Rep. Nate. Consider the phrase: “Mea culpa.” Full Cheers & Jeers column here.