Hoooo kaaaay

Dan Popkey wrote a piece in the Statesman about Joe Palmer, who Speaker Lawrence Denny appointed as chair of the House Transportation Committee. The move was widely viewed as punishment to Leon Smith for failure to slavishly follow every whim of Republican leadership.

Palmer has been in the House for three years, has carried two bills, and recalls only two times he has spoken on the floor.  Palmer has one year of college at Ricks Junior College, and he studied small engine mechanics at BSU.  Seems like a decent enough guy, but here's how long time Republican operative Skip Smyser describes Palmer's qualifications for the chairmanship:

He knows a heck of a lot more about trucks and cars and how transportation works than when I took over. I’ve never changed my own oil. I think he’ll do just fine.

So there you go. If you can change oil, you're a good choice to lead the House Transportation Committee. A better choice, per Denny, than a guy who had once been the chairman of the Idaho Transportation Board.

This is no knock on Palmer, though in reading Popkey's article Palmer does come across as an extreme conservative and pretty closed minded. But this tells us a lot about Denny. And that is, he doesn't care about having the best people, or solving Idaho's problems by bringing the most talent to bear. He only cares about power and ideology.