Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on how five GOP state representatives members stood on the floor of the Idaho House this morning and asked to be removed from their committee assignments until Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, gets hers back – and how it doesn’t look like they’ll get their wish. “I don’t think I’ll be acting on those requests soon,” said House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley.

Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, one of the five, said, “I’m not trying to prove anything.” She said she rebuffed efforts on Facebook to “hashtag me into a group.”

The first-term lawmaker, an A-10 fighter pilot who’s currently a major in the Air Force Reserves, said she was pulled into a closed-door meeting last week and asked to be a witness about various comments, but hadn’t witnessed anything. “I witnessed that there is a tremendous lack of integrity, transparency and accountability,” she said. “That was very alarming for me. I had to decide what do I do.”

Giddings said her request to be relieved of her committee assignments was designed to make a point. “I’m not trying to be rebellious – I want to work with them, I want to understand,” she said. “I want to be part of the team. I don’t know that I’ve been given that opportunity.” She said all she’s heard about why Scott lost her committee assignments has been from the media, and she wants House leaders to bring House members together. “Let’s heal these wounds,” she said.

Bedke said as speaker, he’s obligated to maintain “basic civility and decorum.” “I’m in charge of keeping a minimum of that, and I will,” he said.

On Monday afternoon, all five of the GOP lawmakers, four of whom are freshmen, attended and participated in their committee meetings as scheduled. 

Bedke said he hopes lawmakers can get past the Scott brouhaha and get back to work. “We have got important business to conduct here,” he said.

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