It appears that Idaho’s House Speaker Scott Bedke is auditioning for a job on ‘The Apprentice’ after he removed Representative Heather Scott from her three committee positions. Bedke stripped her of her assignments for a comment she made in the house lounge with several lawmakers present saying that Women lawmakers get their leadership positions only if they “spread their legs.” Not having been there nor being an accredited member of the press I wouldn’t know exactly who she was talking about, but it could have been Rep. Christy Perry, R-Nampa, who has been having an extramarital affair with Senator Jim Guthire. Or maybe she was talking about yoga positions that would impress leadership for committee assignments.
The real question here is if legislators have the same rights of freedom of speech as everyone else in this country, because if they do what is all of the fuss about. A comment was made with no specific names mentioned so what real harm that was done for such a drastic move by the speaker. We know that Speaker Bedke has always had a bone to pick with Rep. Scott as she has annoyed him to the boiling point. It has been said that every time he passes here in the hallway he gets heart palpations and his blood pressure rises. Bedke has been gunning for Scott for the past two years and this was the first opportunity for him to say “I Gotchya”. This draconian move by Bedke is out of line. What he considers a high crime we believe is freedom of speech, and that is what Rep. Scott was doing—exercising her freedom of speech. Does anyone know if there is any truth to what she said?
I will tell you that harsher comments with harsher language are made in the men’s room between legislators when they don’t think anyone is around. Spend enough time at the capital with a prostrate problem and you’re sure to catch an earful. I know I’ve spent a fair amount of time and heard a few conversations with some pretty rough language that were not meant to be heard. Bedke is depriving 55,000 citizens of their right to representation in the house and they should be up in arms about this move by our crony speaker. Rep. Scott is one of the few feisty conservatives that are willing to stand up to the establishment and this move by Bedke is a warning shot fired over the bow of every other legislator who wants to speak their mind. We elect our legislators because we have faith that they will stand up for the people they represent. Unfortunately when they get to the capital what they can say and who they can say it to is limited by establishment cronies like Bedke. Maybe Bedke was upset that Rep. Scott had the most conservative voting record in the legislature because if you look at his you would think he was a Democrat.
All I will say is that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones and that includes Speaker Bedke. I assure you that the speaker has made much harsher comments in his career then those made by Rep. Scott but you will never get him to admit to it. I suggest that the speaker be very careful what he says where he says it and who he says it to for this legislative session because you never know when an outsider may be recording a conversation. The citizens of Dist. 1 should be flooding Bedke’s office with e-mails and phone calls telling him to reinstate Scott immediately. His phone number at the Capital is 208-332-1123 His home number is 208-862-3619 and his e-mail is sbedke@house.idaho.gov.
