DJEERS ... to President Joe Biden.
Remember Biden’s pledge to be a president for all?
Is there anything less partisan than fighting the scourge of wildfires in an arid West stricken by drought, a devastating heat wave and climate change?
How does that comport with the White House excluding three Western governors — notably Idaho’s Brad Little — from Wednesday’s confab on wildfires?
Every other state surrounding Idaho — except Montana, whose governor, Greg Gianforte, was also excluded — was represented. That includes two Republicans — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon — and six Democrats — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Also snubbed was Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.
Idaho is literally at the center of the storm. No state has faced more wildfire issues. Between 1996 and 2016, wildfires consumed more acres in Idaho than any other state in the continental U.S.
A U.S. Forest Service risk assessment ranks Idaho in the 100th percentile for wildfire likelihood.
What state has more expertise?
Idaho is home to the National Interagency Fire Center, based in Boise.
It also pioneered tactics in protecting the wildland-urban interface, that strip of development adjacent to the forests. How many times have firefighters protected communities such as Atlanta or Elk City? Lessons learned in Idaho have been extrapolated elsewhere.
Why wouldn’t Biden’s White House reach out to Little?
If it were a matter of holding a meeting in Washington, D.C., you might understand it. Little can’t leave the state without deputizing his irresponsible lieutenant governor, Janice McGeachin — who’s challenging him in next year’s GOP primary. But as Audrey Dutton of the Idaho Capital Sun noted, the governors met virtually with Biden administration members.
Little is the incoming chairman of the Western Governors Association, which represents 19 states.
And Little is precisely the kind of results-oriented Republican Biden should want to cultivate.
Was this is an oversight or a deliberate partisan snub?
Whatever it was, this is the kind of stunt you’d expect from Donald Trump, not Joe Biden.
CCHEERS ... to Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport Authority Board Chairman Gary Peters and Airport Director Michael Isaacs.
In bringing a United Airlines connection to Denver International Airport, Isaacs, Peters and the airport board scored a major win for the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley.
As a hub for United Airlines and Frontier Airlines as well as a base for Southwest Airlines, Denver can offer direct access to cities along the Eastern Seaboard as well as international flights including London. That’s an ideal complement to Delta, whose flights from Lewiston to Salt Lake City provide direct access to the Southeast and Southwest.
The deal expands the number of Lewiston destinations with a single layover from 95 to 197.
The flight times are ideal — a 6:15 a.m. departure and an 8:30 p.m. return make connecting flights convenient.
The economics are sound. United didn’t require a revenue guarantee to come to Lewiston. And its additional flights puts competition to work in the Lewiston-Clarkston market. It’s not inconceivable to see Lewiston ticket prices begin to compare favorably with those charged at Spokane.
The timing couldn’t be better. This marks a reversal of fortune for an airport community that suffered the one-two blow of losing Horizon flights and then a COVID-19 pandemic that devastated the airline and tourism industries.
As Gary Foss, a managing partner of the ArkStar Group, the airport’s air consultant, put it: “With travel coming back with a vengeance, this is like buying a bar right before Prohibition ends.”
CCHEERS ... to Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Congressman Mike Simpson, R-Idaho.
As they did a year ago, McMorris Rodgers and Simpson stood apart from the majority of their fellow Republicans and joined House Democrats in voting to remove Capitol tributes to men who preferred human bondage over freedom and were willing to embroil this country in a bloody Civil War in that cause.
They were among 67 House Republicans who joined 218 Democrats. Voting no were 120 Republicans.
Congressman Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho, — who a year ago voted no — was absent when the vote was taken on Tuesday.
Among those statues being removed are:
l Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney — Author of the notorious 1857 Dred Scott decision that stripped African Americans of any constitutional rights, he wrote Blacks had been “regarded as beings of an inferior order, altogether unfit to associate with the white race ... and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
l Confederate President Jefferson Davis — This traitor acted in the belief that “African slavery, as it exists in the United States, is a moral, a social and a political blessing.”
l Former Vice President John C. Calhoun — In defense of slavery — he owned dozens himself — the “Great Nullifier” asserted states could declare null and void whatever national laws they chose.
All of which tells you McMorris Rodgers and Simpson have both a clear-eyed view of history and a moral compass.
DJEERS ... to state Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird.
Co-chairwoman of McGeachin’s inquisition against public and higher education, Giddings’ paranoia was on full display when she accused — without evidence — Idaho Public Television of cutting the audio stream from the panel’s June 24 session.
The audio control is in the committee room where the McGeachin task force met. That’s intentional. When the streaming service began, leaders of legislative committees insisted on having that discretion.
So if someone turned off the audio, it was — you guessed it — either Giddings or McGeachin.
Giddings hasn’t been this reckless since she revictimized the legislative intern former Lewiston Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger exploited earlier this year. — M.T.
