[Vision2020] Walt Minnick

[Sue Hovey]

If I had had the chance last evening I'd have reminded him the sporadic 
(albeit very loud) applause from a few people after statements the many of 
us did not support, more than likely came from folks who didn't vote for him 
the first time and wouldn't be voting for him next time, either.

I thought the meeting was interesting.  I'm glad I went.  Minnick has always 
been an artful speaker, as he proved again last evening.  I expected to be 
disappointed, and I was. When Minnick reported obese folks and smokers (or 
both, god forbid,) are the ones who are responsible for this health care 
mess; that was a tad disingenuous.  So I inferred from his statement those 
of you  who are,  just need to stop smoking and eating or die, then our 
system will right itself and everything will be ok. Of course, that begs the 
question of  fat or tobacco dependent Europeans and Canadians who have 
managed not to wreck their public health systems. But let's not go there.

Too bad, I think, those of us who support a single payer or public option, 
may eventually prevail, but not soon it seems.

By the way, don't forget to read the Daily News letter from Ralph Nielsen. 
It's a solid  refutation of a letter that appeared a couple of days ago, in 
which the writer claimed the Canadian courts had invalidated their public 
health system.

Sue H


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rosemary" <donaldrose at cpcinternet.com>
To: "'Wayne Price'" <bear at moscow.com>
Cc: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 8:35 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Walt Minnick


> Hi Wayne,
>
> I think it is possible to be fiscally responsible and embrace traditional
> Democratic values.  The challenge lies with how one chooses to spend 
> finite
> resources.  I support The National Guard and Reserve Retired Pay Equity 
> Act
> of 2009 introduced by Sen. Kerry.  It is apparently still in committee. 
> On
> the other hand, I have huge problems with giving a single penny to
> irresponsible banks and Wall Street gougers while allowing the same
> scoundrels to continue drawing obscene salaries and bonuses subsidized by
> tax payers.
> I strongly support universal, single payer health care. As a beneficiary 
> of
> Tri-Care (formerly known at Champus) for the past 46 years I know that
> government managed health care delivers (on the whole) quality, seamless
> medical care.  This systems also has the advantage of being in place and
> functioning. We wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel, just make it larger.
> If Bill Sali hadn't been such an unbelievable crackpot, Walt Minnick would
> not be in the House. I think the final tally between Sali and Minnick was
> less than 4500 votes.  I certainly hope that the Dems. will rethink their
> support for Minnick and that someone will come forward to challenge him in 
> a
> primary.  I am so over having a DINO represent us.
>
> Rose Huskey
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wayne Price [mailto:bear at moscow.com]
> Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 7:43 AM
> To: Rosemary
> Cc: 'Kenneth Marcy'; vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Walt Minnick
>
> Rose,
>
> I think your right about Walt Minnick being a "one term Charlie".  I
> am a Democrat, and find his stand now that he is elected to be very
> disturbing. He HAS lost the liberal Democrat vote and I can only hope
> that the party will find a DEMOCRAT to run against him, or the only
> choice voters will have is between a Republican that says he/she is a
> Republican, or someone that claims to be a Democrat but isnt!  "He is,
> in his own words a Democrat by default."
>
> I loved how he is against the health care bill because it will cost
> too much money, but he could support 600,000 +  people getting
> government subsidies for new cars!  Just what we need in an economic
> down turn, more people in debt!  He could support 3 billion dollars of
> additional money that will go to the auto industry, but where is his
> support of the National Guard and Reserve  retirement program? For
> veterans, no money, for the auto industry there is plenty!
>
>
>
> Wayne
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Aug 27, 2009, at 6:52 AM, Rosemary wrote:
>
>> Good Morning Ken,
>>
>> I cheerfully stand by the remarks I made last night.   A cursory
>> review of the history of Dixiecrats and Boll Weevils reveals that
>> jackass is a kindly description - and as card-carrying Blue Dog he
>> is, in fact, like it or not, an heir of that peculiar ideology.
>> You apparently are comfortable with the Rep. Minnick's voting record
>> - I'm not. He is, in his own words a Democrat by default.
>>
> http://mountaingoatreport.typepad.com/the_mountaingoat_report/2009/08/walt-m
> innick-bona-fide-conservative.html
>>
>> "Perhaps most revealing is what he told David Broder of the
>> Washington Post on why he became a Democrat.
>>    'In 1996, Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, then head of the
>> Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, recruited Minnick to run
>> against Republican Sen. Larry Craig. "I was an independent, and I
>> told him I wanted to run as an independent. He had no problem with
>> that, but Cecil Andrus [the former Idaho governor and interior
>> secretary] phoned me and said that if that was my plan, they'd run
>> another Democrat against Craig and see that I finished third. So at
>> that point I became a Democrat."
>>
>> Mr. Minnick will be a one term Charlie.  He has lost liberal
>> Democratic support, the Republicans will run a sane (unlike Bill
>> Sali) candidate against him and that will be that.  And that
>> political reality slap couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
>>
>> Rose Huskey
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Kenneth Marcy [mailto:kmmos1 at verizon.net]
>> Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 11:50 PM
>> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>> Cc: Rosemary
>> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Walt Minnick
>>
>> On Wednesday 26 August 2009 21:27:54 Rosemary wrote:
>>> I attended the Walt Minnick question and answer thingy tonight at
>>> the 1912
>>> Building.  My remarks were prepared in advance and follow this
>>> paragraph.
>>> Although I did not call him a jackass (as he accused me of doing)
>>
>> First, without some sort of mutation, the biological facts are that
>> like
>> breeds like within the diversity and varieties of a species. You
>> said to the
>> Congressman that he "as a Blue Dog Democrat, are the philosophical
>> descendant
>> of the jackasses who formed the ... " etc., etc., as below. If like
>> breeds
>> like, the descendant of a jackass is a jackass. Second, the
>> Congressman did
>> not accuse you of anything. What he asked you not to do was to not use
>> pejorative language in a meeting the intention of which was to
>> conduct civil
>> discourse. Publicly calling him a jackass is pejorative, and he
>> spoke truth
>> to you.
>>
>>> after hearing his rambling non-answers and half-assed explanations
>>> for an
>>> hour, I probably should have.  At least Republicans are honest
>>> enough not
>>> to pretend they are Democrats.
>>
>> Idaho Republicans have the closed-door luxury of being such a
>> politically
>> homogeneous monoculture that they don't have to pretend anything,
>> nor do they
>> have to act in ways that many non-Idaho Republicans take for
>> granted, like
>> disclosing who are their campaign contributors.
>>
>>> I can't say the same for Rep. Minnick.
>>
>> Of course you can't say that Congressman Minnick is a Republican
>> pretending to
>> be a Democrat, because he is a Democrat. And what's more, he is an
>> extremely
>> practical Democrat in that he knows that his longer-term
>> effectiveness as an
>> Idaho Congressman depends on his ability to be re-elected. And based
>> on his
>> discussion this evening, he is extraordinarily aware that he was not
>> speaking
>> to a closed-door, Democrats-by-invitation-only, crowd inside the
>> 1912 Center
>> with no press present. He was quite aware that he was speaking to
>> the entire
>> Idaho Congressional District 1 voting populace.
>>
>>> "Last night we lost a great Democrat.  Sen. Kennedy was a tireless
>>> advocate
>>> for the poor, civil rights, labor, and universal health care.  He
>>> personified the liberal, progressive wing of our party.  You, on
>>> the other
>>> hand, Congressman Minnick, as a Blue Dog Democrat, are the
>>> philosophical
>>> descendent of the jackasses who formed the Boll Weevils, and the
>>> Dixiecrats
>>> -  splinter groups that stood against all that Teddy Kennedy stood
>>> for.
>>> Please tell us, based on your voting record, including the fact
>>> that you
>>> have cast 60% of your congressional votes with the Republicans, and
>>> your
>>> attitude toward the public health care option, why you should expect
>>> liberal Democrats to support you in 2010."
>>
>> Congressman Minnick explained that most of the Congressional votes
>> in the
>> tally you mentioned were earmark votes, against which he has pledged
>> to vote
>> as much as possible. He also mentioned that of Speaker Pelosi's list
>> of 36
>> most important votes, he supported 32 of the 36. That's 89 percent
>> with the
>> Democratic Speaker of the House, not 60 percent against the Democrats.
>>
>> Choosing one's battles carefully is critical to conserving resources
>> for the
>> really important battles, and it appears that Congressman Minnick
>> has learned
>> this lesson quickly and well. Idaho Liberal Democrats would be well-
>> advised
>> likewise to learn this lesson, too, because in a state that, in
>> normal years
>> without an Obama national landslide, normally votes on an order of
>> magnitude
>> of 2 to 1 for Republicans over Democrats, Idaho First District
>> Democrats of
>> any kind, liberal, middle-of-the-road, or blue dog, are unlikely to
>> have
>> anywhere else to go in 2010 but to the first Democratic incumbent
>> Congressman
>> in their lifetimes. Those Democrats may be well-advised to be
>> thankful that
>> they have elected to office a Congressman practical enough to be bi-
>> partisan
>> enough to attract sufficient support that would otherwise vote
>> Republican, to
>> re-elect the incumbent.
>>
>> Edward Moore Kennedy was an extraordinarily effective Senator in
>> part because
>> he learned how to form friendships, how to form working
>> relationships, how to
>> form bi-partisan coalitions across many kinds of lines within the US
>> Senate.
>> He spent the better part of half a century learning how to do that
>> well.
>> Idaho's First Congressional District has a Congressman who has
>> learned that
>> lesson with respect to his constituency in his first few months in
>> office,
>> and he'll need to use wisely that education to return to Congress in
>> 2011.
>> Those who recognize the benefits to Idaho and the nation of
>> returning Walt
>> Minnick for a second term would do well to recognize the nature of his
>> constituency, and not complain that it is not as liberal as that of
>> the late,
>> great, US Senator from Massachusetts.
>>
>>
>> Ken
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