Butch Otter Could Do With Less Accountability

I guess it’s understandable that, as a card carrying member of the Ruling Class, Butch Otter would have problems with the 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution. After all, giving citizens the right to elect their senators has cost a couple of the Ruling Class’s charter members their jobs recently. Them rubes is gettin’ uppity.

On several occasions in the last year, Idaho governor Butch Otter has demonstrated his famously tin ear by expressing his dissatisfaction with the 17th Amendment. He has even made his case for the repeal of the Amendment at a Tea Party rally in Spokane. Apparently Otter didn’t get the memo that the Tea Party doesn’t trust politicians all that much. And they are unlikely to look favorably on a politician who wishes to further insulate the Ruling Class from the people’s judgment. What sort of stone head would stand before the Tea Party and tell them that they should be further disenfranchised and the Ruling Class further empowered?

The 17th Amendment, passed in 1913 gave citizens the right to elect their US senators directly. Prior to that, senators were chosen by state legislatures. The original reason for legislative appointments was to temper the anticipated volatility of the House of Representatives. However, the House of Representatives has grown nearly as fossilized as the Senate. I doubt that anyone who helped author the original Constitution could have imagined that anyone would want to spend generations in that cesspool.

Now it’s true that citizens have made some ghastly decisions in their votes. After all, Washington’s senior senator is Patty Murray. But what evidence is there that the Washington State legislature would have done any better? And as nutty as the average California voter is, the assembly it keeps returning to office is at least twice as crazy. Were they in charge, California would have two Barbara Boxers. Or, more likely, California would try to appoint five Barbara Boxers and borrow representation against future generations.

Alaska’s Senator Lisa Murkowski certainly wishes that the authority for appointing senators were still in the hands of the legislature. She gained her seat in the US Senate the old fashioned way – through appointment. And if the legislature still made such appointments, she’d probably be looking forward to a second term. Her father chose her to fill his unexpired term when he won the governor’s office. He was eventually retired by Sarah Palin who beat him in the Republican primary. Palin also played a major role in engineering Murkowski’s defeat in the recent Alaskan primary.

I’m certain that a great many in the Ruling Class wish that they could be further removed from the great unwashed. Nevada’s Harry Reid (D-Torchlight) literally can’t stand the smell of his constituents. Christine O’Donnell in Delaware triumphed over the Republican Ruling Class’s choice to succeed Joe Biden. Delaware’s Country Club Republicans anointed liberal Republican Mike Castle to lead them to certain victory in November. This man favors Obama’s Cap and Trade scheme. He earned an F rating from the NRA for his gun control stance. If Christine O’Donnell goes down in flames this November, the fault lies with the Ruling Class Republicans for choosing such an unpalatable candidate.

Butch Otter now claims that he’s all for Idahoans having the right to choose their senators and insists that his expressed interest in repealing the 17th Amendment derives from his reverence for the 10th Amendment. He sees the 17th Amendment as an infringement on states’ rights. I share his desire to resurrect the 10th Amendment, but there are far more egregious extra-constitutional transgressions out there that need to be overturned that would not run afoul of conservative principles.

But as we’re learning lately, the Ruling Class is far more concerned with preserving their prerogatives than defending any party or governing philosophy. The Ruling Class’s instinctive reaction was to ostracize and isolate Christie O’Donnell as punishment for daring to defeat the Republican Party’s chosen heir. The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee also supplied Lisa Murkowski with legal assistance as she tried to manipulate the absentee ballot count in her favor, following the example set by Al Gore, Christine Gregoire and Al Franken, among others.

When Representative William Jefferson of Louisiana was caught red-handed taking bribes, both parties came together to protect his right to commit any act of corruption in his office.