Good News / Bad News

Kiplinger.com named Boise #4 out of Ten Best Cities to Live, Work and Play.

Even though, as my sister pointed out today over the phone, this kind of press might encourage people to move here (progress is usually better than regress, though!), it's good to rack up these kudos.

One of the things that I found especially encouraging:

Employers know they'll find a high proportion of college graduates here (37%, compared with the national average of 27%) and that new hires will find plenty of affordable housing.
What I can't figure out is where they got this:

The average work commute is 18 minutes.

The video above is the so-called walking tour of Boise, but native Boiseans will get a laugh. Their reporter apparently covered a five-mile radius: downtown and the North End Boise area. She even points to a couple of homes in the North End to give you an idea of "Boise home prices!" Um, if you are looking at homes in the North End to help you determine home prices as a gauge to making a decision about relocating, you should know those are generally the most expensive houses per square foot in the whole city.

What about the arts? What about philanthropy? How about the university or the greenbelt or the Boise Bench?

"We've scored a triple play," Ferguson says, "and two of those plays are chips — computer chips and potato chips."

They figure out what we already knew.

Does this surprise anyone at all?

Senator Craig's self-imposed deadline to resign his seat was September 30. He has not chosen to do so. The reason, he states, is the continuing effort to "clear" his name, which began with a hearing before a markedly skeptical judge. This judge will rule this week whether Craig's case will be reopened, and given that Craig is a lawyer with, one hopes, some understanding of the legal process, the judge will deny the motion. No doubt this will result in an immediate appeal, which will also be denied, followed by another appeal that will be thrown from court so hard it will dent a Subaru station wagon parked at the curb in front of the courthouse. Whereupon he will appeal to the State Supreme Court, which, if it has any sense at all, will refuse to hear it.

By that time, Craig's term will have concluded and he can slink off into the night with his name entirely unrehabilitated and his reputation as a prevaricator and word parser par excellence secured. Unless he chooses to run for re-election, and one can only imagine the fun that will bring about.

The most honorable politician I can point to is Brent Coles, former mayor of Boise. On the day he was indicted (on a ticky-tack charge), Coles resigned his office and the city got on with its business. Contrast that with what Senator Craig is doing now. Stripped of seniority, he is no better than a freshman, and has less credibility.

He thinks he can ride this out now, and he's probably right, but at what cost? Does anyone really believe he can be an effective voice for Idaho?

UPDATE: Wow. There's a surprise. Senator Craig lost his appeal with the Minneapolis judge referenced above, then issued a statement to the effect that he is staying, and anyone who does not like it can...lump it. Somewhere in Boise, you just know that Governor Otter is absolutely infuriated at being played for a sucker. As well he should be. I'm pretty steamed myself.

It became absolutely apparent that he was going to weasel when he went back to the Senate and the story largely died down. The fact that the story lost feet isn't because anyone believes his denials or thinks he was not trolling for boy-toys in the airport potty. Frankly, Craig is such small potatoes (sorry; the pun is apt here) nationally that, in the throes of a presidential election/rugby scrum, media attention on a small state, colorless senator was bound to ebb.

And so he stays. I suppose it could be worse. He said he would not run for re-election, but I haven't read his statement yet. It could say "I have no intention of running for re-election."

A Zeal for the Law

But other than that, no clue.

"Canoeists who pulled Perrine Bridge suicide victim to shore ticketed for no life vests."

Dear Helen,Dan Williams was at your funeral. I wish you could have been there.Love,Kate

It was a tribute to you that he was there. Was Larry LaRocco there? I didn't see him. But Dan was. Approached by Graham Paterson, he was invited to join your staff in the front row. He did. It was at once comical and touching. He paid his respects and I think everyone felt that they were his respects.

Your grandson Dominick got it right. "She treated the dusty cowboy sitting at her dining room table, and probably getting dirt all over the floor with his dirty boots, with the same respect she had for a colleague in Congress. There was no front. Only Helen."

Butch Ottter, visibly moved, offered a kind of prayer, ending with the hope that "you would be proud" of your replacement.

Larry Craig recalled your work in the Forestry Subcommittee; work that survives in the form of the Healthy Forest Initiative.

Four of your grandchildren read tributes from dignitaries like Henry Hyde and Newt Gingrich. But it was the tributes of those who knew you best, those with less at stake than Hyde or Gingrich, like Ron Paul and Todd Tiahrt and your son-in-law John Keenan, that would have touched you most, I think.

There were themes: Your grace, your respectfulness, the love and kindness that you approached everyone with--even your enemies. The passion and frankness that inspired your voters; the unwavering faith in God that inspired your friends.

Everyone was there. Former staff members, like Chief of Staff Keith Rupp ("I always knew I'd come out for her funeral. I just assumed it'd be 2o years from now."), flew in from far and wide. Afterwards we swapped stories and raised a ruckus. As per usual. Only you weren't there to stop us.

We were stoic until they rolled the video tribute. The images of you--as a child, as a mother, as a grandmother, in three tumultuous elections, in Congress, in retirement, on the ranch, with Wayne--lept to life. For once, The Idaho Statesman got it right.

Idaho already feels empty without you.

The Idaho Statesman is waxing sentimental

They are remembering Helen Chenoweth Hage, a political figure its editorial board criticized, ridiculed and never endorsed.

"The political debate will be a little more tame and a little less interesting without her. Things feel emptier already." In death she has become an icon, a woman "always true to [her] beliefs and never dull..."

At times, Chenoweth-Hage was a contrarian voice of common sense. "Our borders are wide open and yet they're shaking down a 66-year-old white grandmother they greeted by name," Chenoweth-Hage told the Statesman's Dan Popkey in 2004, criticizing a federal policy on airport pat-downs. "There shouldn't be that kind of search without reasonable cause."

For a moment I try to imagine Helen's reaction to this tribute.

Love many.
Trust few.
Always paddle your own canoe,
she told me.

I doubt she would trust the Statesman now. But true to her style and character, she would thank them for being gracious and respectful, if not a bit late.

The Velvet Howitzer

My former boss and friend, Helen Chenoweth-Hage, was killed in a car wreck in Nevada.

A woman of supreme character and warmth, she was probably the most misjudged person I have known. Maybe in her death her friends and enemies will meet to salute the tender-hearted, tough-as-nails Congressman and listen to the story her example tells and let go the rancor.

A few of us knew her. We'll be thinking of ways to remember her.

See you on the Other Side, Helen.

ADDED: In case you haven't yet, go the comments. There are the stories there that I had hoped would be told.

And Ms. Lane brings Mrs. C. back to life.

MORE: The Washington Post rakes us through the mud with a bitter, classless article that wouldn't pass for anything less than a scathing editorial in any magazine other than the Post.

Brisket Found!

About 2 years ago, my family moved from Austin, Texas to Meridian, Idaho. It was a good move for us in most ways, but if there are two things we miss terribly about Texas it is the music and BBQ . . . and by "BBQ" I mean brisket.

When we first moved to Texas in 2001 and started going to the likes of Rudy's, Mueller's, The Salt Lick, and the County Line, I never ordered brisket. To me, BBQ was ribs - dry rubbed or dripping with sauce - or pulled pork on a sandwich, such was my introduction to southern BBQ by my deep south friends in Washington, DC. But Texas isn't the deep south (it's Texas), and BBQ in Texas means, among other things, brisket - slow smoked and crispy at the edges, plump and dripping with juice. Cut across the grain, it should just about fall to pieces (as Patsy Cline once said about a man - clearly she hadn't had brisket) when you pick up a slice. You can put some sauce on this amazing piece of smoked beef but if it's done right you'll hardly notice if you don't.

At first, living in Austin, I could take or leave a trip to get BBQ. And then one day, my husband took me to Mueller's and told me to order the brisket and to get it "moist."

Well, put a fork in me. I was done.

I never ordered another rib - dry rubbed, short, baby back, or otherwise. I came to crave brisket even more than my husband, who had previously been the aficionado. So when we moved to Boise in July of 2004, we were salivating for a place to get good BBQ. And we were pretty much left to just salivate, because let me tell it is hard to come by in this town.

And then a friend told us about Roadhouse BBQ in Eagle, a bedroom community of Boise, like Meridian, and right next door. We walked in the door, and the aroma that greeted us almost brought tears to my eyes. It looked the part of a roadhouse (without the grime), but the true test would be the brisket. I ordered mine "moist" or "with the fat," picked some sides, grabbed a lemonade and barely made it to the table before digging into the blackened exterior and juicy red (red, not pink - well-smoked meat has a reddish hue to it) interior of the brisket on my plate.

My husband would have to tell you exactly what the expression on my face was, but I believe my eyes rolled back in my head, my eyelids fluttered, and my body went limp as I teetered on the edge of euphoria. We had found it. Brisket. Real brisket. Texas brisket. Slow smoked, crispy at the edges, plump and dripping with juice.

In my not so humble opinion this is the ONLY place to have BBQ in the Boise area. And not just for the brisket. If you haven't quite made the jump yet to real BBQ (brisket), you can still get ribs and pulled pork, as well as sausage (this is another Texas thing I really dig), turkey and ham. (Their menu is mercifully devoid of CHICKEN!) You can choose from various traditional BBQ sides, such as beans, potato salad, red potatoes, cole slaw, turnip greens, sweet potatoes, black eyed peas, green beans, and cucumber and onion salad. I've had the beans, the red potatoes and the cucumber salad and I love them all.

But the food isn't the only thing to love about Roadhouse - the original Stevie Ray Vaughn concert posters on the wall, the giant photos of Caddo Lake and bluebonnet fields. Signed photos of Pat Green and Robert Earl Keen (both have eaten at Roadhouse and sung its praises). The Texas music they keep pumping through the speakers. The garage doors off the main dining room that are opened on nice evenings. And finally, but far from least importantly, the Shiner Bock beer. God Bless Ross and Polly (the owners - who made their way up here from Texas, via Louisiana) for the Shiner Bock. If you haven't had a bottle(they'll serve it to you in a glass, but why bother), get one of those too when you order your brisket. Settle in to a table near an open garage door or under that enormous bluebonnet photo, pick up a big juicy slab of brisket, pretend you are sweating profusely from insane heat and humidity, think about college football, and by gosh you'll be having yourself one true Texas experience.

Go to their website for more information: www.roadhousebbq.com

[One final note: When you go, if you order the brisket, don't be a nancy boy, pretend you care about your waist line and order it lean. Get it with the fat. This is the way it's done. You're not going to be eating gristle or anything. Good meat has some fat in it. Fat is where the flavor is. And when meat is smoked right, like this is, the fat just melts right into the flesh of the meat and infuses it with all that is good and holy. Trust me on this.]

Condoleeza Rice is in Idaho.

I feel safer just knowing that.

Larry Grant: the Not Republican

Larry Grant's website claims that "he also is committed to working with both Democrats and Republicans to rise above partisan rancor and find real solutions to our nation’s most pressing problems." (Translation: We can count on him to be socially liberal.)

This is inconsistent with what you'll read at Red State Rebels and Grassroots for Grant, penned by Grant's blog manager, Julie Fanselow. Together these blogs are focused on demonizing Republicans in general and the Bush Administration in particular.

Simpson, Crapo and Craig are regular targets; men with whom Grant, if elected, will need to work alongside to "find real solutions." Instead of finding common ground with them, something his Republican-leaning voter base is looking for, he is attacking the Idaho delegation--not based on their values or voting record, but by tying them to the corruption of others. Grant is trying to create a bogeyman of the Republican party and tie Bill Sali to it.

Not exactly high-minded.

How does Grant expect to earn our trust while he builds his campaign not, as he claims, on leadership, but on cultivating partisan rancor?

Will his tactics work? Perhaps Grant is counting on the 1st Congressional District to overlook the issues in November and just have a good pout.

How to Lose an Election: Insult Your Voter Base.

Julie Fanselow, Larry Grant's formidable blogging guru, is not doing Mr. Grant any favors.

Idahoans (around 80%) largely identify themselves as religious. Of those claiming some sort of religious identity, 79% of them align themselves with some form of Christianity. These are among the voters who will show up to vote in November.

In a district like the 1st Congressional District, which has been a Republican stronghold since Chenoweth trounced LaRocco, Democrats have to be cautious about maligning voters' religious values. One of the primary ways to win votes is by persuading voters that your values align with their values. You lose voters by insinuating that they are simple-minded and dangerous.

The Grant campaign seems to think that it will win this election with posts like this one:

Meanwhile, the Bible thumpers have obviously been stuffing the ballot box in an online poll at the Idaho Statesman. Go have your say. Then get back to the real work you are doing - you know, whatever it is you do to really make the world a truly godlike place, instead of wasting government's time, money, and energy on heresies like this.

In July I referenced a separate post of Ms. Fanselow's where she suggested that "radical fundamentalists appear eager to remake the United States into a theocracy" because she hypothesized that Christian radio stations may be trying to secure radio frequencies proximate to those where NPR is traditionally found. Christians are stealing listeners!

And the Religious Right is accused of developing conspiracy theories.

It strikes me that the religiously devout, to Julie and the Grant campaign, are petty hypocrites worthy of elementary name-calling. And based on my reading of Red State Rebels, the religiously devout are simply politically active Christians who disagree with Julie.

It doesn't bother me that Ms. Fanselow may be alienating Grant's voter base. It's just too bad she's doing it in the name of secularism.

Boise, a Mining Town?

Boise has attracted its fair share of national press, and some of it leaves us more than a little amused at the outdated assumptions about the city and its vibe.

Read this otherwise excellent travel article about Boise to understand what I'm talking about.

The New York Times writer calls Boise a city "once ruled by the bait-and-bullet crowd" and a "mining and farming town at heart."

It's been a long time since Boise was ruled by the so-called bait and bullet crowd, (though we are still proud of our appreciation of and access to the outdoors), and even longer since it was a mining town.

In fact, when exactly was it a mining town? During the Gold Rush of the 1860's?

True, the City is still bounded by farm or ranch land on every side--though both are disappearing in a sea of starter homes; we know we're a short drive from "the country." But calling it a "mining and farming town at heart" betrays a lack of knowledge about the region.

The writer also refers to Boise's "rejuvenated downtown and a budding arts community."

Downtown Boise has been resurrected, but for a long time. And the arts community is far from budding; thriving would be a more fitting choice.

The Idaho Shakespeare Festival, which was highlighted in the July 21 edition of the Wall Street Journal, just turned 30.

The Boise Art Museum has occupied its space on Julia Davis Drive and Capitol Boulevard for almost two decades. Its founding association is much, much older. The Morrison Center for the Performing Arts is 22 years old.

Even "newer" arts organizations are staking their claim and consistently offering powerful and meaningful performances. The New Heritage Theatre Company is an 8 year-old local professional theatre with a resident repertory company and a theatrical training conservatory(yes, you read that correctly) that boasts Sir Anthony Hopkins as its honorary patron.

Boise Contemporary Theater, about the same age, is producing unforgettable contemporary works at its permanent location on Fulton Street.

The list goes on.

We're thrilled the Times writer was here to discover for himself what a rare jewel of a city Boise, Idaho is--and have some fun while he was at it.

But he is advised to double-check his cliches.