Profiles in Incompetence

According to Dan Popkey, Mayor Dave Bieter’s political chances and the effect of the Ten Commandments issue were discussed by Brandi Swindell in a recent press conference. What’s the effect of this debacle on the Mayor’s chances to be elected to higher office such as Governor?

I’d say the Ten Commandments caper is one for the books. No, it’s not Profiles in Courage, but if Kennedy wrote a Profiles in Incompetence, this would be a prominent entry.

To allegedly avoid a lawsuit by a group that hadn’t filed any lawsuits, the actions of the Mayor produced two separate lawsuits. To avoid one night of ranker and controversy, the Mayor and Council removed the monument without a public hearing, leading to four and a half years of rancor and controversy.

The policy itself is unpopular. The Mayor and Council got a majority against the Ten Commandments Initiative because of citizen fatigue. However, without a strong vote against the Ten Commandments in the North End, the Monument would have passed. The rest of America sees the Ten Commandments Issue differently-76% favor public display of the Ten Commandments and you can bet that, with the exception of a few places such as Latah County, that sentiment will be prevalent throughout the state.

The Mayor has also garnered a lot of people who are strongly opposed to him within his own city and will work hard to defeat him. I’m one of them. I didn’t do much for Butch Otter last time, other than vote for him and put up a bumper sticker for him on my car. Given Bieter’s view of government, as shown during his tenure his mayor, I don’t want the whole state afflicted with Bieter. I’ll personally crawl through broken glass in a burning building to stop Dave Bieter from being elected Governor.

The Statesman was being more accurate than it knew when it compared a Mayor that seeks to punish dissent and avoid public input on decisions to Caesar:

Unfortunately for Caesar-er-Bieter, he has never won an election in an even numbered year outside of Boise’s North End. Mayoral elections are held in odd-numbered years, and conservative candidates face the challenge of getting people to realize that there IS an election being held. Sorry, but for Dave Bieter, for reasons that go even beyond the Ten Commandments Monument, this is about as far as he goes.