We just heard the news about Idaho's Sen. Mike Crapo Drunk Driving conviction.
Sen. Mike Crapo pleads guilty to drunken driving charge
By SCOTT WONG
He failed a field sobriety test and was arrested without incident. Police said the three-term senator’s blood-alcohol level was 0.11, higher than the 0.08 legal limit.
A second charge for running a red light was dropped.
Back in 2011 I posted a diary about the John McGee's drunken escapades who was then the leader of Idaho's State Senate Republican Caucus, and I and re-posting it below:
Idaho Senate's GOP caucus leader steals truck w 20' trailer, jack-knifes it, then passes out
Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes in Idaho's Republican Party. Idaho Republicans love to enact their strict morality into the state's laws. Frequently Idaho's Republican leaders don't live up to the morality they foist on the rest of the citizens of their state.
McGee Arraigned, Freed on $5,000 Bond
McGee was arrested early Sunday morning after police found him passed out in the backseat of an SUV with a 20-foot trailer that had been jack-knifed. Ada County Sheriff's deputies said the vehicle had been stolen, and McGee registered a .15 blood alcohol level, nearly twice the legal driving limit.
On top of all that Senator John McGee seemed to be having drunken religious hallucinations about the Promised Land as he wandered around the Boise neighborhood where he had just jack-knifed the stolen truck and trailer.
Idaho senator – Country club to jail cell
The 38-year-old McGee is a seven-year legislator and Senate Majority Caucus chairman. He was an aide to then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and “has been mentioned frequently as a candidate for higher office, including governor,” the Idaho Statesman reported.
McGee had reportedly started drinking at a golf course at 10 p.m. on Saturday, and later wandered off on foot and coming upon the Excursion and trailer. As the Statesman reported:
“Tracey Carleton said her two teen-aged sons woke her up about 2 a.m. Sunday saying a drunk man had jack-knifed the neighbor’s Ford Excursion and a 20-foot trailer in their large south Boise yard. The man had wandered around the property, up and down the road and eventually went to sleep in the vehicle’s back seat.
“Carleton said her husband Joe, a volunteer chaplain at the Ada County Jail, went outside to speak with the barefooted man, who said that he was looking for the ‘Promised Land.’
“When he saw Tracey Carelton in her white bathrobe on the front porch, he said, ‘Look, there’s an angel’.”
The Carleton’s then called police.
Maybe McGee thought he was being Raptured.
Idaho Republicans have a tradition of high profile hypocrisy by its leaders. Helen Chenoweth, Steve Symms, Larry Craig, and Butch Otter are all are famous for saying one thing, and doing the exact opposite in their personal lives.
John McGee seemed to be on track to regaining his powerful position when something odd happened. He resigned.
Former Sen. John McGee heads to jail
McGee was already sentenced to year probation in a 2011 drunken driving case. That summer, the up-and-coming senator was found passed out in a stolen SUV that he had crashed.
Seven months later, when it seemed like McGee was on a positive track to regain his political status, he shocked the community by resigning from office.
Then the reason for McGee's abrupt resignation became public.
Deputy prosecutor Jean Fisher said in February of 2012, McGee cornered a 25-year-old legislative attaché in his office and demanded graphic sexual conduct from her.
As I had mentioned in my previous post Idaho's Rep Helen Chenoweth, Rep. Steve Symms, Sen. Larry Craig, and Gov. Butch Otter were all caught in their own scandalous ethical lapses.
Others Fair Game for Scandal in Wake of Affair
By Howard Kurtz
Days after she began airing commercials urging President Clinton to resign over his affair with a White House intern, Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth yesterday acknowledged a long-term affair with a married man in the 1980s
Sen. Crapo’s DUI bust is latest Idaho politician scandal
–Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, was busted by an undercover cop for disorderly conduct in 2007 at a restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Craig copped a plea, but later denied that he had solicited sex. In a famous press conference, Craig began by saying: “Thank you for coming out today.” The senator later explained that he takes “a wide stance when going to the bathroom.”
Craig had a record of voting against every gay civil rights measure to come before the Senate. He insisted: “I am not gay. I never have been gay.”
–Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter has behaved himself in recent years, but in 1992 was arrested for DUI after an Idaho state trooper noticed his erratic driving. Otter delivered a series of explanations, initially claiming he was reaching for his cowboy hat that had blown off in the wind. Otter later said he had soaked his chewing tobacco in Jack Daniels.
–U.S. Sen. Steve Symms, R-Idaho, left the Congress’ Upper Chamber in 1992, but left behind memories of a somewhat incoherent appearance on the Senate floor after a lengthy National Secretaries Day luncheon. Symms is also remembered for jettisoning his long-suffering wife, who suffered a disability, shortly after winning reelection in 1986.
Something must be seriously wrong with the culture inside Idaho's Republican Party for it to keep producing leaders like these.