Comments on: Idaho Legislative Turkey Trot Redux

By: HorseRacer

HorseRacer — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:09:34 +0000

Dave, given that Turkish law holds it unlawful to insult or denigrate the government of Turkey, their strict censorship, even blocking YouTube, etc., the bigger question should be why did these legislators honor Turkey by visiting there at all?

Until some of these stone age countries (and Turkey is not the worst) move into the civilized world we should ignore them.

By: Goobs222

Goobs222 — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:53:04 +0000

Obviously this can’t be a boondoggle that was intended on influencing the Legislature in Idaho. Three of the six making the trip were Democrats. Any lobbying group with half a brain (if lobbying was at all the purpose of the “hosts”) would have known 50% of its effort was a total waste from that standpoint.

By: Clancy

Clancy — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:30:30 +0000

Would something like this fall under “gifts” and Title 18 and Chapter 13 of State Code? http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/idstat/Title18/T18CH13SECT18-1356.htm

EDITOR NOTE–Clancy, you got the right section of the law! The problem is with the exceptions and interpretations and whether or not the beneficiary is “subject” to the legislature–when they live out of state. The city person who turned them down last year felt he would have been in violation had he accepted. Legislators apparently saw no issue with taking the gifts for themselves and their spouses.