OPINION: Cheers and Jeers: Idaho senators put America last

JEERS ... to Idaho Republican Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch.

Chairperson of the Finance Committee, Crapo joined a party-line vote that advanced the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services.

A senior member of the Intelligence Committee, Risch also participated in a party-line vote that elevated the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.

These two know better.

If decades of public service didn’t teach him, then his own health scares ought to have sobered Crapo to the idea of putting Kennedy in charge of the nation’s health apparatus. He’s made a career of marketing the false claim that vaccines cause autism. He’s got an enormous conflict of interest because he stands to profit from a lawsuit against the manufacturer of Gardasil, a vaccine against the human papillomavirus.

During his confirmation hearing last week, Kennedy revealed a shocking ignorance about basic programs, primarily Medicaid.

Now one of nation’s insiders on national security — and until Jan. 20, a genuine hawk — Risch has to know how placing the inexperienced Gabbard at the helm of America’s intelligence community puts the country at risk. She saw nothing wrong with meeting with former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. She’s so supportive of Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russian Channel One host Vladimir Solovyov called her “our girlfriend Tulsi.”

And during her confirmation hearing last week, Gabbard refused to call Edward Snowden — a National Security Agency contractor who leaked the nation’s secrets and now lives in hiding in Russia — a traitor.

But Crapo and Risch would rather put America last when it comes to putting President Donald Trump first.

All of which proves how prescient Idaho political columnist Chuck Malloy was when he wrote — two months ago — that Crapo and Risch “would vote for Trump’s selections if they included Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.”

JEERS ... to state Rep. Ted Hill, R-Eagle.

Sponsor of a bill to ban certain flags from Idaho’s public school classrooms, Hill last week claimed: “I’ve seen it, to the point where the American flag has been taken down and another flag is put up. ... You’ll see in the background there will be some other flag. It’s a distraction. This does happen and even to the point we saw ISIS flags and Hamas flags in the classroom.”

Really?

How come we missed that?

Where was the community outrage directed at an Idaho teacher who displayed the flag of terrorist organizations in the classroom?

Where was the disciplinary action taken against an educator who displayed such poor judgment?

This is so contrary to the role of a public school teacher that the closest equivalent would be a minister who preaches the efficacy of armed robbery from the pulpit.

It simply doesn’t happen in Idaho.

And when called on it, Hill admitted as much.

Obviously Hill failed to communicate with public school educators because he would know better.

That’s the charitable view.

The uncharitable view?

Hill is a liar.

CHEERS ... to state Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls.

An instigator of so much legislative animosity toward Idaho’s higher education leadership, even Ehardt found a line she would not cross. She bucked her own House Education Committee chairperson, Rep. Douglas Pickett, R-Oakley, when he proposed giving the state Senate final approval over the hiring of presidents appointed to run University of Idaho, Boise State University, Idaho State University and Lewis-Clark State College.

The State Board of Education — consisting of gubernatorial appointees already confirmed by the state Senate as well as the elected public schools superintendent — recruits and hires those presidents. Pickett wants to subject those appointments to Senate confirmation.

Hiring a university or college president is not an easy — nor inexpensive — task given the job market and a political climate that is hostile toward higher education. Who would run the gauntlet of applying, enduring interviews, background checks, publicity, schmoozing with the community and negotiating over compensation — then moving to the state, only to risk having the appointment scuttled months later during a Senate confirmation?

Said Ehardt, a Senate confirmation vote would be either a “show” or a “distraction.”

Along with Reps. Jack Nelsen, R-Jerome, and Chris Mathias, D-Boise, Ehardt raised enough issues to result in Chairperson Pickett’s bill being returned to him.

JEERS ... to state Sen. Brandon Shippy, R-New Plymouth.

This extremist just promoted a scheme to not only extend personhood to a fertilized egg, but to charge any woman with murder if she gets an abortion — regardless of whether her pregnancy was the result of rape or incest — or battery if the fetus or embryo is damaged.

He’d also give the prospective father standing to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

It’s a reasonable concern that a fetal personhood law would put contraception at risk.

And as state Sen. James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, noted, such a law would subject every miscarriage victim to police scrutiny. How is that possible in a state where it’s already not safe to be pregnant and doctors are fleeing because they can’t adequately treat crisis pregnancies without risking a prison term?

Sure, State Affairs Committee Chairperson Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, pledged to bury the measure in his desk drawer. But the fact remains that a majority of his committee members voted to introduce it.

Until Idaho women reassert their reproductive autonomy through a ballot initiative, the rules are going to be set by men like Shippy — who will never be pregnant. — M.T.