Speaker Bedke’s Questionable Conduct #BootBedke

Speaker Bedke’s Questionable Conduct

#BootBedke

A well-developed six-pack is a beautiful thing. –Especially in the Idaho Legislature.

This six-pack is stacked, and ready to power their way through a belly bumping session against Speaker Bedke and his flunkies. Bedke is passing himself off as a Republican all the while slinking around behind closed doors ramrodding the usual litany of liberal legislation and keeping a lid on the conservative agenda.

It’s high time to expose the underground goings-on of the legislature and we have six brave Idaho patriots who are up for the challenge. Are the leadership and the liberal press trying to smear conservative legislators in hopes of diminishing their voices? If that is the game plan, this time the scheme isn’t working.

One by one these patriots are speaking out about the mess at the Legislature. It began one week into the new legislative session when 5 legislators rose in protest of the apparent abuse of power by the Speaker when he arbitrarily stripped Representative Heather Scott from her committee seats. He and at least one other snowflake did not like what Scott said in a private conversation. It was a month before Bedke thought it was important enough to address. By then plenty of time had gone by to allow the accusations to gel.

The “disciplinary” action finally came to him: silence the voices of thousands of Idaho citizens she represents with a rarely used punishment usually reserved for the most egregious misconduct. (Idaho Statesman 1/16/ 2017) Ron Nate of Rexburg said he was “deeply concerned about the integrity of this body, and the mixed messages being sent”.

At the time Giddings of White Bird was more concerned about the shocking disrespect and lack of professionalism in the way leadership handled the situation. “This whole thing is just really unfortunate. We all want all this to be handled professionally.” According to the same article Zito told the Spokesman-Review “For me, this is not a personal issue, this is a First Amendment issue. It has nothing to do with any particular person.” Dorothy Moon said, “This is just wrong.”

Ron Nate has written an excellent article about the broken process in the House of Representatives. (Redoubtnews.com 1/8/2017 “Boise Bullying and the Voice of the People”.) In his revealing article he explains the workplace bullying that keeps fearful politicians in line at the State House.

Another example of the questionable conduct of leadership and their thinking was revealed in an article by redoubtnews.com “Idaho Majority Leader Mike Moyle Violates Ethics Rules” 1/24/2017. Apparently there was a group of students touring the capital who were told by Moyle that in the next few days one of the elected representatives would be ousted from the legislature.

This is an absolute violation of rules and common decency under any circumstance. The leadership had already decided the outcome of a particular case before the ethics committee could hear it. Raise your hand if you think this friend of leadership will receive appropriate discipline for this blatant breach of decorum. –Of course not. The pile under that rug in Bedk’e office is getting bigger. And in addition, the above statement, heard by all who were there, was directed at one of the new representatives in the room (one of our Six-Pack warriors) as a thinly veiled threat. Whoa! Who is this guy?

Each of these warrior legislators has their own observations about the lack of transparency, the intimidation they have experienced and seen, the attempts to silence the conservative legislators along with their proposed initiatives –all of which seems more than coincidental.

For the record, these legislators are not all on the same page within the conservative movement as local rags have falsely accused them. The Idaho Statesman and others assumed they were all supporting Scott, when in fact they were actually objecting to the leadership’s unethical abuse of power and process, “Idaho lawmakers show solidarity with Rep. Heather Scott” 1/16/2017 etc. But, hey, if you can discount the complaints by lumping the group all together, it saves a lot time and energy. Even though their views differ politically, they all have committed themselves to shining the light of day on the schemes of the Legislative leaders.

More to come on this subject… is an understatement.

The swamp word keeps swirling around in my head.