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Posts published in “Day: May 9, 2021”

Expulsion may help House integrity

hartgen

The Idaho House took a sad but needed moral step when its Ethics Committee voted unanimously April 29 to recommend expulsion of Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger for “conduct unbecoming of a legislator” and which tarnished House integrity. (House Rule 45)

Facing a certain vote against him, von Ehlinger, R-Lewiston, resigned just ahead of the impending tally. But the ripple effects are yet to be determined, and in the end, some good may come from this tawdry event.

Von Ehlinger was one of a dozen or so anarchist right-wing legislators whose fanaticism has been building within the GOP for years. Increasingly unhinged, this group has obstructed the Idaho legislative process with bizarre claims of a state “tyranny” and “swamp of Boise.”

They are the main reason the session has dragged on, week after week, well past the usual wind-up of late March. This small but noisy cabal has undermined Idaho’s common interests in many ways and wasted tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

At the committee hearing, several arch-conservative female legislators spoke on von Ehlinger’s behalf, saying what a “gentleman” he was. Yea, sure. They must be truly blind and of poor judgement of human nature to have been duped in this way.

Their adherence to right-wing ideology prevents them from seeing von Ehlinger for the sexual predator he is. They thus became enablers in his exploitations. Nothing is as fanatical as blind fanaticism, the “Patty Hearst” or “Stockholm” syndrome of loyalty to even the most heinous of actions and actors.

One of his supporters, Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, went so far as to post a scurrilous blog rant against a von Ehlinger victim, with the young woman’s picture and name. That an elected public official would “out” a sexual assault victim shows that there is no level below which these rightists won’t go to foster their own crazy ideologies and biases. You know things need correcting when folks like Giddings are elected to public office.

Giddings’ horrid display of insensitivity (since taken down from her Facebook page) elicited dozens of negative comments from Idahoans everywhere. People were outraged that a public official would treat a sexual assault victim this way, as it was clearly motivated by political hatred and revenge.

Von Ehlinger’s expulsion speaks to his own actions, for he is the miscreant here. From the committee testimony, it’s apparent that he began cruising the Capitol at the 2020 special session last in August; by winter, he was hitting on female interns and state staff with impunity, including sexual activity with at least two women. Boise police are investigating one as a rape case.

Giddings and another of his defenders, Rep. Dorothy Moon, R-Challis, tried to give him a pass, saying the sexual encounters were between consenting adults and were therefore none of anyone’s business. But the committee wasn’t fooled.

Committee member Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, called VonEhlinger’s actions ‘poisonous” to the House’s integrity. That’s not too strong a term. By any standard of decorum, it was a series of despicable acts for personal gratification, a preying on female staff and interns with complete disregard for anyone but himself.

What is obvious to all but his fellow ardent fanatics is that von Ehlinger saw the Capitol as little more than a Hooter’s pick-up bar; he ignored repeated warnings from other legislators that his behavior violated both common decency and common sense. That apparently didn’t matter; he just kept on hitting on the women. Even in his resignation letter, he continued to assert that he’d done nothing wrong.

That’s the way it often is with fanatics. They wrap themselves in hide-bound narratives, often from questionable sources, from which they can’t be separated. (IdahoEdNews, 4/29). This leaves them blinded to any transgressions by their “heroes” who are really handlers and manipulators themselves. In short, they hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest.

There’s really no alternative except in change; that is, defeating or retiring some of these rightists from public office and replacing them with more common-sense representation. As sordid as it was, the von Ehlinger hearing and the House’s determination to show the facts may yet result in positive change. A cleansing is in order. Perhaps now it will come about, district by district.

Stephen Hartgen, Twin Falls, is a retired five-term Republican member of the Idaho House of Representatives, where he served as chairman of the Commerce & Human Resources Committee. Previously, he was editor and publisher of The Times-News (1982-2005). He can be reached at Stephen_Hartgen@hotmail.com.

(photo/Idaho Capital Sun)