A parallel universe is unfolding

Coeur d’Alene’s contingent in the Idaho Legislature proudly signed their names to an important letter to the editor in today’s Opinions.

Speaking for a great many of us, these District 4 lawmakers — Sen. Mary Souza and Reps. Paul Amador and Jim Addis — shine a bright light on the tremendous work routinely put in by Police Chief Lee White and his department. If you haven’t noticed their effectiveness, it’s probably because of the headlines that were not being written about them: You know, the ones about looting, violence, and a cacophony of calls to defund the PD.

You need simply wander over to today’s op-ed page then to get a little better perspective on Souza and, by extension, her CDA-based legislative colleagues. Venerable Idaho political columnist Chuck Malloy points out that Souza proudly leads a parade of failures — failures in the distorted view of Idaho’s Libertarian Party, aka the Idaho Freedom Foundation.

The IFF does provide something of a public service by tracking how Idaho’s legislators vote — and how often. For instance, Souza voted on 99.26 percent of all measures that made it to the floor; Amador, 95.41 percent and Addis 94.2 percent. (Outgoing Sen. Don Cheatham, by the way — who also is not viewed in the most positive light by IFF — voted on 100 percent of the 2020 measures that made it to a floor vote.)

But for reasons that would make sense only to those who view the legislators’ grades through a prism that does not represent the Republican Party or, we might suggest, the average rational Idahoan’s thinking, Souza earned a failing grade for how she voted in 2020 while Rep. Heather Scott of Blanchard earned almost a perfect score.

Yes, that pretty much tells you everything you need to know.

While Souza and her colleagues were busy this week recognizing excellence and reinforcing values that most Idahoans hold near and dear, Scott and her band of petty extremists were eagerly undermining our state’s commander in chief. In her latest newsletter, Scott referred to a petition drive that seeks The King’s head, a bid to recall our governor and allegedly restore the Idaho Constitution to its rightful owners. (“We the People,” in case you haven’t been hammered over the head with that phrase enough lately. And here’s a dead certainty: That if “We the People” were to vote on a gubernatorial recall, it would fail in spectacular fashion.)

In what parallel universe could Gov. Brad Little possibly be considered one of the bad guys while Rep. Heather Scott embodies all that is good? Ah, right: The one that’s ruled by the state’s de facto Libertarian Party; the one that looks a lot more like hell than beautiful Idaho.