Cheers & Jeers: Irony is dead

JEERS ... to U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho.

Now that Joe Biden is president, Risch has pivoted from Donald Trump’s Shih Tzu into a Doberman pinscher.

In a June 11 Washington Post column, the ranking member and former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee lashed out at Biden’s summitry with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Said Risch:

Putin is a threat to America’s transatlantic alliances.

Putin is an international outlaw who has imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Putin empowered Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who hijacked a Ryanair airline to nab dissident journalist Roman Protasevich.

Putin is amassing more than 100,000 troops on the Ukranian border.

Add to that Russian interference with the U.S. embassy in Moscow, pressuring Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty out of the country, holding two former Marines hostage in Russian prisons and disregarding its commitments toward arms control.

And Biden is failing to stop it.

“Dialogue for the sake of dialogue will only grant Putin the validation he craves. Honest dialogue cannot take place until Putin’s actions demonstrate his willingness to engage in good faith diplomacy,” Risch wrote.

Remember when Risch took Trump to task for taking Putin’s word over that of the American intelligence agencies, which concluded Russia meddled in the 2016 election?

We don’t, either.

While the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., took Trump to task, Risch remained mute.

Remember when Risch urged Trump to at least protest Russian bounties on American troops in Afghanistan?

Neither do we.

The Idaho Republican dismissed the intelligence accounts as “grossly inaccurate.”

And remember how Risch sounded the alarm about Russian belligerence?

Didn’t think so.

While Trump coddled the Kremlin, Risch minimized the threat: Russia, he told the Boise Metro Chamber, was “the most overrated country on the face of the planet.”

In Risch’s world, irony is dead. So is any sense of shame.

CHEERS ... to Greg Casey of Star.

His Republican bona fides are impeccable: chief of staff to former U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.; president of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry; and sergeant-at-arms of the U.S. Senate.

In the late 1990s, Casey helped oversee Capitol security when police officers Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson died protecting House Majority Whip Tom DeLay and others from a deranged gunman.

When it comes to the Jan. 6 melee Trump unleashed on the Capitol, Casey told Betsy Russell of the Idaho Press: “This is exactly what it looked like: An insurrection.”

Establishing a bipartisan commission to get to the bottom of the insurrection, he says, is “the right thing to do.”

That puts him at odds with most of his party.

“What are we afraid of? We’re letting our own partisan positions get in the way of the safety of the people who work on Capitol Hill and the Capitol Police,” Casey said.

Congressman Russ Fulcher and Sens. Mike Crapo and Risch — who have opposed establishing the commission — should follow his advice.

JEERS ... to state Sen. Dan Johnson and Rep. Mike Kingsley, both R-Lewiston.

You’d expect Kingsley to defend the Idaho Freedom Foundation against Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder’s assertion that the far-right group is a threat to Idaho’s democracy.

After all, Kingsley parrots the IFF party line 95 percent of the time.

Johnson has gone his own way so often the IFF has issued him a 60 percent score. Yet he told the Lewis Clark Valley Chamber of Commerce that IFF’s influence is overrated.

“I think indifference is a much bigger threat to democracy than any one of the legislative advisory groups we see in Boise,” Johnson said.

Most “legislative advisory groups” don’t actively undermine public and higher education.

Most don’t disregard facts when it comes to demonizing campus diversity programs.

Few revel in attacking Idaho’s meager efforts to support early childhood learning.

All of this, IFF does blatantly.

CHEERS ... to Fulcher.

Earlier this week, he joined Simpson, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and 403 other House members in awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to members of the Capitol Police who defended Congress against the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.

Issuing one of the nation’s highest honors to people who were hurt and killed as a result of the assault is wholly appropriate. But 21 House Republicans played politics with it, contending the mob should not be called “insurrectionists.”

Among them were Congressmen Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who frequently find Fulcher in their company.

Not this time. Good for Fulcher.

JEERS ... to Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin.

Last week, her inquisition of Idaho’s public and higher education systems lost its sole patina of legitimacy. Lone among the anti-diversity ideologues on McGeachin’s task force was Idaho School Boards Association President-elect Jason Knopp of Melba.

But one session into the process, Knopp had enough and quit: “ ... The lack of education professionals on the committee would leave its members to make under-informed, disparaging statements about the thousands of professionals who take very seriously their responsibility of educating all of Idaho’s schoolchildren. ... ”

Replacing Knopp is Pete Coulson of Notus, who as far as anyone can discern, supports McGeachin for governor and is an Idaho Freedom Foundation acolyte.

McGeachin’s anti-education echo chamber is complete. — M.T.