Hall of Shame keeps growing
From notorious to just plain nutty, Idaho keeps cranking out more than its fair of undesirable headline-makers.
You start with Richard Butler of the Aryan Nations and you think there's nowhere to go but up, right? Well, you can go laterally - with an extra wide stance in a Minneapolis airport men's room. Thanks for that, Senator Craig.
We had a legislative lightning bolt in the Rotunda a few years back when two lawmakers who would eventually serve in Congress went after each other - almost literally. Bill Sali audaciously (and unscientifically) linked abortion to breast cancer, and fellow Republican Mike Simpson was so incensed, he threatened to toss Sali out the window.
Phil Hart, late of the Idaho Legislature, became such a sorry punchline for saying one thing and doing another - and racking up a whopping tax debt to his nemesis, Uncle Sam, en route - that when he finally was knocked out by voters last year, nobody was laughing.
Deeply respected and religiously devout U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo got nailed for DUI over the holidays, effectively evaporating feelings of elation back home. And late last month, Sen. Cheryl Nuxoll of Cottonwood got into the act of high-profile indignity when she compared the role of insurance companies in the federal health care overhaul to the plight of Jews during the Holocaust.
All of these Spud State embarrassments made the rounds of national newspapers, TV programs and blogs, and the trend is assured extended life due to the recent alleged racial incident involving a Kootenai County man. No, silly, not the school board guy; the business guy.
When reports spread far and wide that Hayden resident and business exec Joe Rickey Hundley allegedly slapped and racially insulted a 2-year-old child on a commercial flight, even the mighty Onion couldn't help but shed some tears of mirth. The Onion, for those who don't know, bills itself as America's Finest News Source. It is most certainly the most irreverant.
When you've been lampooned by The Onion, there is no place on Earth to hide. But count your blessings, fellow Idahoans. Nowhere in its pasting of Hundley did The Onion mention Hayden, Butler, or even Idaho. This might be one of those rare times to be glad that many Americans don't even know where Idaho is.