NorthwestFebruary 12, 2004

Adam Wilson

BOISE -- There's no time for details now. Things are moving like Oldsmobiles in a demolition derby figure-eight.

That's an apt description, mind you, because the Capitol is where people come to smash each other.

Whatever may be said about the proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage, the nut of the idea is to divide and conquer.

If it makes it past the Senate, it will go on the ballot, and it will be an issue in every legislative race.

It is, what one might call, a wedge issue. The idea is to force middle of the road politicians to pick a side or get run over by the big truck called "centrist voter."

Which is why, I have been told, it will never see the light of day in the Senate. Some committee chairperson will handle it, very clean, no mess.

Or not. You have to be careful about who you talk to around here.

I've just been informed -- I am not making this up -- that 10 to 12 percent of male sheep are homosexual. If that percentage applies to people, the argument goes, there will never be a wave of gay marriages.

This is literally how people are discussing the issue. The lack of documentation around here is getting obscene.

One thing you should have in Boise is documentation.

Sen. Tom Gannon, R-Buhl, was certainly after it Wednesday, when he ran a subcommittee on the Idaho Digital Virtual Academy.

He really wanted to see the contract between the charter school and K12, a private education company.

As I understand the set up, the charter school board gets the money from the state, cuts a check to the K12 company, and then K12 in turn pays the teachers, gives students computers and designs the curriculum they study.

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But the school may go out of business next year for lack of funds, and the legislators want to see the K12 contract before they hand out any more cash.

Cash is but a small thing this year. Last year it was the only thing, but there's not much too go around, so the politicos have turned to tinkering with other things.

Things like making sure no one sues restaurant owners for making them fat, a bill now in the House, or making sure no one touches any monuments in public parks 25 years old or older (like the slabs the Eagles handed out with the 10 Commandments carved on them), unless the Idaho State Historical Society OKs it, also a House bill.

Or you can go with the high-powered photo op, as Gov. Dirk Kempthorne did this week when he disappeared, only to be found in Iraq.

While there to boost the morale of the troops, Kempthorne also boosted his news coverage by sneaking a reporter out with him.

The Idaho Statesman in Boise agreed to go along in quiet with Kempthorne on the deal, and then splashed his picture all over the front page Wednesday.

A great exclusive, to be sure. But it begs the questions, why, when no Idaho newspaper sent reporters to Iraq to cover Idaho soldiers, did one bite on to a hush-hush trip with the Guv, and would any paper have paid for the trip if it had been announced two months ago?

That isn't how it went down, though, so we'll never know.

It's just a matter of hanging on from here out, anyway, because the Legislature is in a hurry to get out of town in time for the primaries at the end of March.

Then we'll begin the real demolition derby -- campaign 2004.

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Wilson may be contacted at awilson@lmtribune.com

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