Mid-week comic relief - except for Dirk

I heard about this Sunday (at church, as a matter of fact), and 43rd State Blues had it days ago, but I just now watched Idaho state Sen. Michael Jorgenson attempt to explain "small-town values" to a Comedy Central "reporter" at last week's Republican National Convention. Check it out at New West.

Meanwhile, a year after Larry Craig's career was reduced to a punchline, his attorney today suggested in court "that his foot tapping in an airport men's room may have been protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of speech." There's more at CNN and the AP.

Also from the Republican culture of corruption department, get a load of this breaking report of sex, drugs, and other bad behavior at the federal agency that's supposed to be regulating the oil industry. I'll wait for your jokes in the comments ... they're so obvious ...

To be fair, we'll note here that the period covered in the report is from 2002 to 2006, so Dirk Kempthorne had just arrived on the scene at Interior. Still, this is certain to create headaches for our former gov. According to The New York Times, "The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch." More here. And rec this diary at Kos. (And this one, too.)

Comments

[Sisyphus]

Nice snag blogma on the Dirkster asleep at the wheel. No surprise.

[Julie in Boise]

Yeah, except as I say above, much of this seemed to happen before his watch - and yet it's interesting that it's taken this long to come out. And yet, it's not a moment too soon to raise more questions about the Grand Oil Party and the "Drill, Baby, Drill" crowd.

[lostinutah]

I remember a Statesman article with mentions of lots of rumors about the Dirkster when he was Senator and Governor. I wouldn't paint him as totally innocent, necessarily (though not guilty, either).

[Julie in Boise]

Hey Lost, how about an update from Utah? Is Jim Matheson likely to win another term? Are any other Democrats rising in the polls?

[lostinutah]

Matheson = Republican. Really. I'll vote for him because he beats someone with the R by them by a slight amount...but he's so not a Democrat. He should win very easily, mostly because he votes with the rest of the crowd here 99% of the time. He's not like, say, Harry Reid.

Statewide, not a chance in heck (as we say here) that you will see any more Democratic representation but in SL County, a Democrat is the Mayor (the county has a Mayor as does SL City proper) and he is running this year and should easily win re-election.

There's strong Obama support here around the city, but once you get out of Salt Lake County (with the possible exception of over towards Price which is coal country), it's kind of a lost cause to be a Democrat. It's sad.

I remember voting for LaRocco the last time he ran for office back in the day - I'm wishing him luck.

I will give props to Governor Huntsman, a Republican, because he does try to do things like increase education funding and change the liquor laws, but he gets shot down a lot.