In this week's main feature, Project Censored, details the top 25 stories you should have read about in the mainstream media over the last year but didn't.

Story number six is "As economy shrinks, D.C. lobbying grows." The short version: even in a bad economy, D.C. lobbyists still netted a $3.2 billion paycheck from special interests. The special interest that spends the most lobbying Congress is no surprise: the healthcare sector.

That got us thinking, how much has the healthcare sector spent lobbying Idaho's Congressional delegation?

Here are career totals from all four of Idaho's D.C. suits, according to Opensecrets.org.

-Sen. Mike Crapo: $609,442
-Rep. Walt Minnck: $144,164
-Sen. Jim Risch: $94,200
-Rep. Mike Simpson: $385,329

Idaho Gov. C. L. "Butch" Otter told Pocatello NBC affiliate KPVI News 6 that he "intends" to run again and that he'll make the announcement on his own time. It's the first almost-solidly affirmative response the cagey governor has given to that question.

Otter has several opponents in the GOP primary, including Ada County Commissioner Sharon Ullman, large animal veterinarian Rex Rammell, who is already calling himself Idaho's 33rd governor, anti-abortionist Pro-Life and comedian Pete Peterson. Former state legislator Jana Kemp is running as an independent and Lee Chaney intends to run as a Democrat, though the Idaho Democratic Party is seeking another candidate. W. Lane Startin has been running for governor in 2010 as a Democrat for years now.

With a guy like Al Franken in the U.S. Senate, or Jon Stewart being the most trusted newsman in the nation, it may not be as far-fetched anymore for a comedian to take to politics.

And that's just what Pete Peterson of Boise aims to do. "Politics and comedy are not mutually exclusive," Peterson said.

Peterson ended a four year dry spell a few months ago, returning to the Torch II, a Boise bikini bar and setting up shop at various downtown and North End coffee shops and corner stores to plot out his campaign strategy. Which amounts to courting high turnout for the 2010 GOP Gubernatorial Primary and not spending a lot of money doing it.

We went up the hill to the Torch II out of curiosity this afternoon and met with Peterson, who was staging a 12-hour campaign launch party. We were a bit disappointed with the show—must have been during a shift change. But intrepid Spokesman-Review reporter Betsy Russell, who showed up at the beginning of the party, got a shot of Peterson with one of the girls, Tawni, to be specific.

Russell did some real reporting on Peterson last week as well, discovering past arrests and some history of mental illness.

But we did not find Peterson to be crazy, just a bit hard to pin down. But look at his competition. Also running for governor are Rex Rammell, a veterinarian who was radicalized when his domestic elk herd escaped from its pens and had to be exterminated by the state, an organic strawberry farmer who changed his name to Pro-Life, and Ada County Commissioner Sharon Ullman, whom we are not totally sure how to describe in a one-liner. We should ask Pete for a good one-liner.

Peterson has been performing standup on stage since his retirement in 2006, including three trips to London and the United Kingdom, he says, where he even performed at the London Comedy Store. He used to do standup at the Funny Bone in Boise as well, he said.

Peterson traces his involvement in politics back to a 1994 People Magazine article asserting that Larry Echohawk, now head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was poised to become the first Native American governor. Peterson said he was pissed off that People Magazine would declare a winner in the Idaho race like that, so he signed up to work for Phil Batt, who ended up winning. Peterson rode the Idaho GOP campaign bus, which in past elections has traveled the state with a slate of Republican candidates.

"The Democrats, they don't have a bus, they have a Volkswagon Bug and there's room for three more people on it," Peterson quips.

But then, as Peterson tells it, Batt double crossed him and did not allow him to appear on stage at the inauguration. Now Peterson says it's Gov. C. L. "Butch" Otter who's crossed him, appearing "disconnected" and "arrogant" as Peterson puts it.

A manager at the Torch II made it clear that the bar was not endorsing anyone in the governor's race and that Peterson was just another customer. But maybe if he becomes governor, he'll let the ladies take their bathing suits off. If they want to.

Idaho Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch are joining the GOP catwalk today in announcing their Nay votes on Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Risch said she was, "a genuinely nice, smart and well-intentioned person," but that he's still not going to vote for her. Crapo said that she evasive and misleading in her testimony.

Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, announced today in USA Today that he would not support Sotomayor.

"I don't believe that Judge Sotomayor has the deep-rooted convictions necessary to resist the siren call of judicial activism. She has evoked its mantra too often. As someone who cares deeply about our great heritage of law, I must withhold my consent," Sessions wrote.

Here's what Risch had to say, via e-mail, this morning:

“First and foremost, I take the advise and consent duty imposed on me by the Constitution most seriously. I personally met with and interviewed Judge Sotomayor and discussed water law, the Second Amendment and several other matters. I reviewed her cases and I listened to her confirmation hearings and have determined I cannot support her lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

There is no question she is a genuinely nice, smart and well-intentioned person. However, her belief and pronouncement that the Second Amendment is not a fundamental right is something I cannot accept. Her answers to questions on the use of foreign law to interpret our Constitution did nothing to ease my concern that she would not look to the laws of other countries when interpreting the Constitution. That should not happen under any circumstance.

And from Crapo, who also critisized her Second Amendment stance:

Also troubling is that she has made statements acknowledging that her experience allows her to choose the facts she wants to see when determining a case, rather than applying the law. And she has repeatedly stated that U.S. judges may look to foreign law to interpret the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the United States to maintain our country’s standing in the world community.

Sen. Mike Crapo is calling folks again tonight in one of his iTownHall Meetings. You were supposed to sign up for the call by Monday, but could still try. Send an email to info_iTownHall@crapo.senate.gov with "Future Meetings" as the subject line to request a call.

Crapo does these phone chats with constituents on a quarterly basis. You can listen to past forums on Crapo's Senate Web site.

Crapo tends to agree with his callers in expert political fashion, and then state his opinion, as this clip from Feb. 11 demonstrates:

Yes, Sen. Crapo said, "Hi Vern," to the caller, who is complaining about Lehman Bros. owning property in the Wood River Valley, or something.

Apparently, Alaska governor and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has found the constant barrage of scandals a little too much.

News broke early this afternoon that Palin announced that not only will she not seek a second term as governor, but she will step down from the office by the end of the month.

Details are still sketchy, and no official reason has been given as of yet, but we can’t help but think that this raises some serious questions about her long-presumed run for the White House in 2012. Maybe there's more moose hunting in her future.

Idaho Rep. Walt Minnick told the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce yesterday that he got a lot of attention in the lead up to last Friday's vote on Cap and Trade.

"I made the mistake of saying I was undecided ... and it must have been because I was lonely."

Thanks to Dan Popkey at the Idaho Statesman for taping that clip... thanks Dan! Minnick said that two people from the White House came down and told him they'd have a much easier time announcing his appointments for two federal positions if he'd back Cap and Trade. (Does that get caps now?)

Ironically, or not, two long-overdue appointments were announced on Tuesday, just a few days after Minnick's latest vote against the administration. As commenter Sysiphus says, "politics the old fashioned way."

Or is it?

The Obama Administration has just announced that former IACI Veep Dick Rush will run the USDA's Farm Service Agency in Idaho and Idaho Lottery Alum Wally Hendrick will serve as State Director of Rural Development.

Rep. Walt Minnick nominated the two for the positions back in March. U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the appointments today.

Hendrick's job description, from USDA:

USDA’s Rural Development administers and manages over 40 housing, business, and community infrastructure and facility programs as laid out by Congress through a network of 6,100 employees located in 500 national, state and local offices. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural America. Rural Development has an existing portfolio of over $114 billion in loans and loan guarantees.

And Rush's task:

The Farm Services Agency works to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life for rural Americans. Some of the agency’s efforts include providing direct operating loans for farm equipment, seed and fertilizer, as well as rural housing loans to help rural people buy, build or rent housing. FSA also procures various commodities to benefit low-income families through domestic food assistance programs. At the same time, the agency creates jobs by funding the growth and creation of rural businesses and cooperatives.

Gov. Butch named Sen. Brad Little Lt. Governor this morning, an hour after former Lt. Gov. Jim Risch was sworn in as Idaho's new junior U.S. senator. Otter said that he knows Little's family and his reputation as a public servant.