Benewah County Sheriff Robert Kirts isn't going to win his battle to continue to treat Coeur d'Alene tribal police with contempt. He's already losing that battle. Already, the House Judiciary Committee has voted unanimously to allow a bill removing authority for cross-deputization from him, if he can't act like a grown up in dealing with tribal police. Importantly, the dislike, distrust, and possibly bias Kirts and other elected officials have toward the tribe is now on full display for Idahoans to see. Kirts hasn't helped his cause by referring to respected human rights official Christie Wood as "stupid" and by labeling concerns from the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations as a bunch of "fecal matter." That might play well in St. Maries coffee shops. But Kirts' crude comments and dug-in attitude are fueling human righs reform -- and giving Benewah County a bad name. A similar thing happened in Bonner County at the cusp of the new millennium when uberconservatives Bud Mueller and the late Larry Allen bulled their way into power. And began to shake things up in a neaderthal way. Only to land their county on the Southern Poverty Law Center watch list and become a target for human right efforts. Ultimately, they and their movement lost control when Bonner County residents got fed up with their Far Right antics and the stigma attached to them. This battle over cross-deputization may be the beginning of the end for redneck bigotry in Benewah County. Kirts may discover he's become the pin-up guy for small-mindedness in Benewah County/DFO.