Lawmakers punishment, counterattack could be just the start of trouble in Idaho House

What a way to start a session.

It’s only the first week, but Idaho lawmakers already look and act as if it’s the last week of March and Capitol cabin fever is in full blush. The cause of their ailment? An uncomfortably public meltdown in the Republican House caucus over conduct unbecoming a lawmaker.

Actually, make that lawmakers plural, and conduct unbecoming a high schooler — with no offense meant to students. House leaders took actions they hoped would quell the uproar and allow the body to get down to the people’s business. But it looks more like the trouble is just starting, and that the internecine Republican conflict that has marred the start of the 2017 session might persist.

The new Legislature met briefly in early December to reorganize for the coming session. That’s where lawmakers get their marching orders, including committee assignments. In the House, those assignments are ultimately the strict purview of the Speaker.

Enter Rep. Heather Scott of extreme North Idaho – and yes, “extreme” in this sense covers ideology as well as geography. Now starting her second term, Scott entered office in 2015 as a tea party activist with far-right populist positions across the policy spectrum. But her roster of bogeymen (and women) includes her Republican colleagues. Within the Capitol, what other lawmakers see as her paranoid disruptive crusade against established norms, Scott sees as a principled stand against cronyism and opaque government.

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/politics-blog/article126614379.html