These are worth a read. They come from two colleagues and former co-workers I respect: Corey Taule, opinion editor at the Post Register in Idaho Falls, and Marty Trillhaase, editorial page editor at the Lewiston Tribune.

Normally, I might insert these in our Saturday WestViews lineup, but we're going to focus this week on editorials about Idaho's budget crisis, including another of Trillhaase's edits. (That roundup is going to be worth your while, too.)

So, here goes, pasted here because Post Register and Lewiston Tribune online content sits behind paywalls:

From the Post Register:

Jeers to Congressman Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, who refused to stray from the GOP herd during Tuesday's resolution of disapproval concerning South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson, he of the "You lie!" outburst during President Barack Obama's congressional address. Only seven Republicans took advantage of the opportunity to cast a vote for civility and respect for the nation's highest office.

Simpson, regrettably, was not among them.

But eastern Idaho's representative was not content to merely vote no. He issued a news release chalking the whole disapproval vote up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desire to discredit opponents of a health care reform bill.

That's inexplicable stuff from someone generally grounded in common sense and pragmatism. But the election year approaches, and that means appeasing a base more interested in rhetoric than results. And so, with sadness in our hearts, we offer:

Jeers to Simpson and Sen. Mike Crapo, for their talk radio-inspired criticism of President Obama's use of policy czars, those regrettably titled advisers who came under fire after one, Van Jones, was exposed for someone who should never have been on the public payroll.

Now don't get us wrong. We don't like the idea of policy czars any more than Simpson or Crapo do. But this has been an issue for the entire time both men have served in Congress, not just the past few weeks. In fact, it appears that President George W. Bush employed roughly as many policy czars as Obama.

Crapo addressed the issue in an open letter to the president. Simpson co-sponsored a couple of bills "to provide greater oversight into the role of czars in the Obama Administration," according to a news release. And that's fine. We simply wonder why Crapo and Simpson weren't this curious when President Bush was appointing his AIDS czar or his manufacturing-job czar. And neither said a word when then-Gov. James Risch, now serving in the U.S. Senate, created an Idaho drug czar.

A little outrage, from time to time, can be an invigorating and productive thing. Selective outrage, on the other hand, is rarely a pretty sight.

From the Lewiston Tribune:

JEERS … to U.S. Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Mike Simpson, R-Idaho. Tuesday, they voted against rebuking U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., for calling President Barack Obama a liar during the president’s health care speech.

The condemnation passed 240-179. All but seven Republicans voted against it. A dozen Democrats voted against it. Five more voted "present."

U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, voted with most Democrats to slam Wilson’s behavior.

Sure, Wilson apologized to the president.

Sure, the president said the apology was sufficient.

Yes, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is playing politics here.

So is Wilson. He’s become the martyr among members of his party and the talk radio set.

So what?

A white congressman from a state that took this nation to civil war over race under President Abraham Lincoln — after nearly doing so under President Andrew Jackson a quarter-century earlier for the same cause — shouts "you lie!" at America’s first black president in a dramatic breach of decorum during a joint session of Congress.

Do you condemn such behavior or not? Do you respond to such unmistakable symbolism or not?

Simpson and McMorris Rodgers had a chance to transcend party loyalty.

They didn’t take it.