Quashing dissent: A big, happy compliant family

Editor’s note: Our thanks to the Idaho Post Register for allowing us to republish this opinion.

Eric Anderson, presumably, pays his taxes and, to our knowledge, has never taken timber off state endowment lands to build himself a log cabin.

Yet Anderson, a Republican legislator from Priest Lake, is being punished. Why? For having the guts to file an ethics complaint against a member of his own team, Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol.

Hart owes hundreds of thousands in back taxes, penalties and interest to the state and federal governments, but not because of bad luck or accounting errors. Hart decided years ago that, unlike everyone else, he no longer had to pay income taxes.

A House Ethics Committee recommended Hart be booted off the Revenue & Taxation Committee. After dragging the matter out beyond the Nov. 2 election, House Speaker Lawerence Denney removed the safely re-elected Hart from the committee, but only after Idaho’s tax scofflaw granted his permission.

So much for strong leadership.

Anderson thought an ethics committee should also examine Hart’s decision to illegally remove timber from state endowment lands in 1996. Hart didn’t appreciate that. Neither, apparently, did Denney.

When committee assignments were handed out earlier this month, Hart retained his vice chairmanship of the House Transportation Committee. Anderson, on the other hand, learned he would no longer be vice chairman of the State Affairs Committee.

His replacement, Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, has less experience. But Crane did have the advantage of never crossing one of Denny’s cronies.

It didn’t stop there. Anderson was denied a request to serve on the Judiciary Committee. In fact, Anderson received only two committee assignments. Several freshman legislators received three. A couple even ended up on Judiciary.

Denney told Idaho Spokesman-Review reporter Betsy Russell that “no one was punished.” Anderson’s demotion was simply an oversight, though the speaker did say he warned Anderson about possible “fallout” if he pursued an ethics complaint against Hart.

And Denney, according to Russell’s story, suggested to Anderson that he “have somebody else do it.” That probably means Denney was encouraging Anderson to find a Democrat to do his dirty work.

So much for integrity.

Welcome to Idaho, where doing the right thing is discouraged, then punished; where selectively obeying the law and embarrassing the state’s lawmaking body is winked at, if you belong to the right faction; where one-party rule has become so pervasive that leaders flagrantly abuse power and shrug off questions with a chuckle and wave of the hand.

Denney and his leadership team understand what the Anderson example will mean. The next lawmaker who sees a wrong and is tempted to point it out will keep his mouth shut and get back in line.

The Idaho Republican Party will remain one big happy compliant family.

Just how Denney likes it.

Corey Taule is senior reporter at the Idaho Post Register.