Thanks to friendship, Hart is bullet-proof

Now tell me again, how is it that Idaho Rep. Phil Hart is bullet-proof? He has been brought up on ethics charges, only to be assigned to the same ethics panel that saw nothing wrong with what he did last time.

Yes, we are in a second go-around with Hart. The question is, can he be held accountable for timber he stole in 1996? There is also the small matter of the federal search warrant and resulting criminal indictment of Hart’s silver business associates, but let’s not talk about that right now. Rep. Eric Anderson has called Hart’s activities, which now includes the timber theft, in addition to the unpaid taxes, a “stain” on the legislative body. A hearing was held Dec. 13 to decide if there is any reason, with this new information, to take any further action against Hart.

The reason Hart is bullet-proof is that Speaker Lawrence Denny likes him. It is Denny who appointed the ethics panel last time and he appointed it this time. Why should anyone think the result will be different this time? The same people will result in the same vote.

You say, “what about the revelation that Hart stole timber from state endowment land?” The way the argument goes is, “that was then, this is now.” Hart has been elected since then. The statute of limitations has run on both the criminal and civil aspects of the timber case and Hart is home-free. Free to tend to his dedicated voters.

Well, not so fast. Where do ethics come into all of this? Should legislators be held to a higher standard of ethics than just “catch me if you can?” Is there a continuing ethical obligation to make the state whole? Did all that disappear when Hart escaped the angry clutches of the attorney general? The attorney general said there is a continuing moral obligation. Now I hear he is scrambling to make a distinction between immoral and unethical. Do Hart’s ethical obligations somehow fall short of his moral obligations? I think not.

I think Hart will again escape the people’s wrath. His friends in the Legislature will say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, go forth and be a predator once more.” After all, the school children really did not need the money. And the continuing tax obligations, well, it is just taxes after all. No one likes taxes.

DEAN OPPAL

Hayden