[Vision2020] Governor "Long Ears"

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the "Cheers and Jeers" column (by Marty Trillhaase) in
todays's (March 4, 2011) Lewiston Tribune.

---------------------------------------------------------

JEERS ... to Gov. C. L. (Butch) Otter. After an unusually long hiatus from
this feature, Idaho's chief executive has returned with gusto. Witness his
testimony Tuesday before the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee. Otter
is steamed at the Obama administration's new rules for managing more
Bureau of Land Management acreage as potential wilderness.

Otter railed against a heavy-handed federal government that "unilaterally"
imposed a "top-down ... one-size-fits-all" policy "without 'public'
input."

"The lack of transparency with which this order was issued and is being
implemented is deeply disconcerting and is not consistent with the proper
role of government," Otter continued. "If the BLM had developed its new
designation in a public forum and provided for congressional approval,
these concerns would have been addressed."

Otter called the package a "job killer," and one that "exempts
stakeholders, threatens the spirit of collaboration and cooperation. ..."

Elsewhere he complained: "Nobody called me and said, 'In 60 days or in 90
days or in 120 days, we're going to put out this secretarial proclamation,
what do you think?' "

Doesn't this sound like one jackass calling another "long ears"?

Wasn't it Otter, with his sidekick Superintendent of Public Instruction
Tom Luna, who two months ago sprang a radical education reform package on
an unsuspecting state?

Wasn't it Otter - and Luna - who during last year's campaign conveniently
forgot to inform voters about their intentions to kill 770 Idaho teaching
jobs and then export the freed-up cash to out-of-state, for-profit online
education providers?

Wasn't it Otter who never consulted teachers, parents, students, school
administrators and many school board members about this plan while it was
being drafted?

Only a governor missing a fixed core of principles could play victim on a
national stage while victimizing others on his own.

---------------------------------------------------------

Question, Governor Otter:  How soon can the people of Idaho anticipate a
public hearing concerning the Upper Lochsa Land Exchange? (seeing how you
so proudly exclaim your support for transparency and public input)

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown