Saint Madsen

Roger Madsen, Director of the Idaho Dept. of Labor, has "saved" the Idaho Human Rights Commission from the chopping block. He apparently found room in his budget to absorb the Commission, and it will now be part of the Dept. of Labor.

Of this, a couple of legislators commented:

"Is he a darling or what?" said Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, who co-chairs the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, after Human Rights Commission Director Pam Parks told the committee the good news. "There's got to be a halo on that wonderful head of his."

Democratic Rep. Wendy Jaquet of Ketchum chose similar words. "He's a great rescuer, and he's a saint."

My response? Blaaarrrrrg.

I'm happy that the IHRC has been spared, but, c'mon. Anointing Madsen is a bit over the top. Start with this:

"He's just always been incredible in adapting to whatever the wishes are of the governor at the time," said JFAC's other co-chair, Dean Cameron, R-Rupert.

So this consummate political player always finds a way to please the Gov, right? Then I guess we can safely assume that Gov Otter didn't really want to kill off the IHRC, otherwise Madsen's move would be going against the Gov's wishes.

But, notice that with budgets as supposedly tight and cut back as they are, Madsen still had some money laying around that he could use to fund the IHRC. I guess he hadn't tightened his budget all that much. Also, notice that Madsen just expanded his fiefdom a little bit more. So, yeah, it's good that he "saved" the IHRC, but I think there's more to the story.