Clement Leroy gets married

Clemont Leroy "Butch" Otter finally decided to marry one of his girlfriends. I guess he is pretty confident he will become Idaho's next governor and it would be inappropriate to move into the State House while living in sin. His ultra conservative base would almost certainly not approve. I guess you could describe this as a marriage of convenience. But does it mean that if he loses the election he will get divorced? Remember he is a Roman Catholic, or so he claims. It has taken him a while to manage to get his first marriage (which produced four children) annulled. The Catholic church moves in mysterious ways. There was a fairly detailed description of the wedding in our sort of local paper. The bride apparently wore some kind of tasteful off-white gown. Clement Leroy looked quite handsome in his white jacket. I couldn't tell whether or not he was wearing his famous tight jeans.

Anyway, I have been looking at his record in Idaho politics. He was, as you doubtless know, Lieutenant Governor for some 13 years (1987-2000). I have been unable to determine if during that time he did one single thing for the benefit of Idaho citizens (other than Simplot and other wealthy farmers and businessmen). He could easily be described as an "insider's insider," a good ol' boy magnified by one hundred (he claims membership in so many different organizations you can scarcely count them). What you can learn from his record is that he once won a "tight jeans contest" in a bar. He also accumulated a DUI along the way. And he twice was fined for violating Idaho water laws. He has now admitted that as a Congressman since 2001 he has been bored and found it difficult to accomplish anything (and he has, indeed, accomplished very little). I guess he just decided that being a Congressman was boring so he'd become Idaho governor (he would have no reason to assume he could not do this as he has all the right connections, etc.). Why anyone but Simplot and a few other wealthy Idahoans would want him to be governor is not at all clear to me (not that the rest of us peasants should have anything much to say about it). Oh, if you want to know where he stands on most issues look up his voting record. It runs between 85 and 97 percent on virtually any John Birch Society rating. In addition to being and insider's insider he is an ultra conservative's conservative. Just what we need in Idaho to sink us even deeper into the pit of right-wing slime.

There is an exceptionally fine Democratic candidate for governor, Jerry Brady (who was very nearly elected governor once before), who will actually stand up for the interests of ordinary citizens rather than just the wealthy. Look him up.