Nov. 8--So maybe, in retrospect, it's best that the Legislature spent two winters resisting Gov. Butch Otter's call for a major investment in road repair.

And maybe it's good that an Otter-appointed task force will spend the next year studying ways to pay for highway work.

The Idaho Transportation Department has other problems to deal with. And some politicians have some explaining to do.

The firing of Pam Lowe -- the ITD director who will not go quietly away -- took one more messy turn Friday.

Lowe filed a wrongful termination lawsuit. In her whistleblower complaint, she paints herself as a competent department head who was the target of a politically motivated ouster:

® She says she was fired because she tried to trim a $50 million contract to oversee the Connecting Idaho highway project. The contract benefited Washington Group International, which had donated money to Otter and Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, and CH2M Hill, which supported Otter.

® After repeated attempts to cut the contract, which drew fire from Otter's office, McGee introduced a bill in 2009 to transfer the power to fire an ITD chief away from the Idaho Transportation Board, and give it to the governor. The bill was killed, according to the lawsuit, after McGee was assured that the board would fire Lowe.

As if things couldn't get uglier, Lowe says she plans to file additional claims this week.

A claim is no proof of wrongdoing, of course. And at this point, neither Otter nor McGee are talking. "There's a lot that I would like to say," said McGee, who added that it would be inappropriate to comment on a pending lawsuit.

Everyone is owed their day in court -- and on charges of this nature, taxpayers owe it to themselves to listen carefully.

Lowe's whistleblower complaint challenges Otter's credibility on the centerpiece issue of his term as governor. Otter has argued that highway and bridge maintenance is woefully underfunded, affecting public safety and the flow of Idaho products. Otter's most ambitious tax and fee plans have stalled in the House, but no legislator has been a stronger ally to Otter than McGee.

We, too, have sided with Otter on the road-funding issue, because we think the evidence supports him. We've also supported Connecting Idaho, the bonding program to improve several Idaho highways, including the crowded lanes of Interstate 84 linking Boise and McGee's Canyon County legislative district.

The case for new highway money may be built on a mountain of studies and a mass of statistics. Ultimately, the case is only as strong as the trustworthiness of the people making the argument. Lowe's allegations, because of their sheer explosiveness, call that credibility into question.

Did a $50 million contract provide needed management expertise for Connecting Idaho projects, or did it just provide some work for a couple of politically connected companies?

While we're at it, what was the reason behind the bill to allow Otter to fire an ITD boss? Was it an attempt to clean up chain of command, and extend the authority a governor has over many other agency heads? Or was it just an attempt to punish Lowe for refusing to play ball?

The no-comment is the stock response to a lawsuit. We aren't surprised that Lowe's adversaries are sticking to the script. But taxpayers deserve answers -- the kind that the legal process should provide.

Our View" is the editorial position of the Idaho Statesman. It is an unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Statesman's editorial board. To comment on an editorial or suggest a topic, e-mail editorial@idahostatesman.com.

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