Hill: ‘I came to Boise 16 years ago to drain the swamp too, I understand that excitement’
Asked about how he’ll deal with the message from last night’s legislative preview held by nine far-right legislators who essentially were declaring that they don’t want to be muzzled and if they are they’d take out the speaker, House Speaker Scott Bedke said, “The way I always do. I’m pretty much what you see is what you get, and I don’t see me departing from that m.o.”
Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill said, “If you don’t get your way, you’re frustrated, and that’s true for all of us. And the system’s not working, or people aren’t listening to me or whatever the thing is. The real successful legislators are those that learn the way the system works, the way our Constitution is set up, and how we’re to proceed to accomplish the people’s business. It’s worked for us for over 100 years in this state and for longer than that in this nation. I think that as we all learn that and as we all learn how to work within the system to get the people’s business done, (all will recognize) there’s a reason.”
He said, “I came to Boise 16 years ago to drain the swamp too, and I understand that excitement to do that, but I’ve learned we’ve got a lot of good people serving, we really do. They’re making significant sacrifices to serve the people of the state, regardless of what party they belong to and from what part of the state they come.”
Senate Minority Leader Michelle Stennett said, “We have to remember that we all equally represent about 45,000 people from our districts, and therefore we should have equal standing in the room. Everybody’s there to be the voice for the people who elected them.” She said, “About 80 percent of what we do we do well together across both houses and both parties. And there’s about 20 percent that is what you all like to write about, because it’s what divides us and what’s different. But we are geographically different, ideologically different,” and from different parties. Stennett said her preference is “not just going in and blowing it up,” but added, “But we do have a right to be the voice for those people equally.”
