On Sept. 28, 2010, the Coeur d'Alene Press printed an opinion piece by Jeff Ward in which he complained about "a lot of untruths, half truths, and bald-faced lies" that are told during a political campaign. And then mere sentences later he told a "bald-faced lie" about Congressman Walt Minnick's NRA rating, knowingly and falsely claiming the Congressman had a rating of D+ instead of the factual rating of B+.

According to a report on the Idaho Reporter website, NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said Minnick voted with the NRA 100 percent of the time in the U.S. House and scored well on its questionnaire for candidates.

Jeff, there you go again.

But it is no wonder that Mr. Ward is attempting to smear Congressman Minnick with lies rather than doing his paid job of selling Idaho citizens on Raul Labrador and his out-of-the-mainstream positions like repeal of the 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, aimed at removing from "we the people" their constitutional right to elect senators to represent them in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Labrador has said he supports a return to the smoke-filled, back room deals of yesteryear, when lobbyists, big businesses and special interests bought and sold Senate seats. This corrupt practice, which at times resulted in states having no representation in the U.S. Senate for years at a time, was ended in 1913 with the ratification of the 17th Amendment. The ratification fight was led by Republican Sen. William Borah, "The Lion of Idaho."

According to a poll conducted by six Idaho newspapers from Sept. 13-15, 59 percent of those voters surveyed oppose repealing the 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and return to having state legislatures pick U.S. senators. Additionally, Idaho's entire delegation, Senators Crapo and Risch and Congressmen Minnick and Simpson are opposed to taking away the power and responsibility from the people of Idaho.

Now I understand why Jeff Ward wrote the column he did, last week. If I was working for a candidate that supported a position opposed by 59 percent of the voters, I'd probably resort to "a lot of untruths, half truths, and bald-faced lies" to distract the citizens of Idaho, too.

Thom George is chairman of the Kootenai County Democrats.