In rejecting their state party's dimwitted hopes of turning back the constitutional clock, Idaho's Republican U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch also ironically paid homage to a predecessor's bold stand on the same issue nearly 100 years ago.
Crapo and Risch announced they definitely would not honor the Idaho GOP platform to seek repeal of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Ratified in 1913 by the states, the amendment removed the election of U.S. senators from the hands of state legislators and conveyed elections to a popular vote.
At their recent convention, Idaho Republicans embraced a crop of daffy goals reminiscent of 18th-century thinking, including returning the selection of U.S. senators to the 80 Republicans in the Legislature. While Crapo and Risch stoutly refuse to support nullification of the 17th Amendment, Republican Gov. Butch Otter declined to say where he stands.
Short on Idaho history, Republicans didn't realize the amendment was largely the handiwork of a premier Idaho politician, William Borah, who served six terms in the Senate (from 1907 until his death in 1940), was a GOP presidential dark horse in 1936 and whose name graces the state's highest peak, Custer County's 12,668-foot Borah Peak.
Borah, a splendid orator, championed the 17th Amendment after scandals involving legislative bribery and 45 deadlocks in 20 states that left some Senate seats vacant for several years.
Although Borah had a gift for vision and foresight, Idaho's GOP party leaders seem stuck a century in the past.
