[Vision2020] Idaho Needs Its Own McCain Moment

[Tom Hansen]

"Idaho Needs Its Own McCain Moment"
By Marty Trillhaase

Idaho's political leadership rightly has condemned fringe gubernatorial
candidate Rex Rammell for saying he'd purchase a hunting tag for President
Obama.

Rammell was attending a rally at Twin Falls last week when a woman asked
about "Obama tags." Responded Rammell, "The Obama tags. We'd buy some of
those."

It was a stupid, reckless, possibly even criminal comment. It plays to the
worst in American history. Of the 44 people who have served as president,
four have been assassinated in office and at least six more escaped being
murdered.

The idea of issuing a hunting tag for the nation's first black president
conjures up the worst of the Jim Crow era.

All of which Rammell has compounded by insensitivity and pig headedness.

First he shrugged it off as a joke: "Anyone who understands the law knows
I was just joking because Idaho has no jurisdiction to issue hunting tags
in Washington, D.C."

Then he fired back at some of his Republican critics, blasting former Gov.
Phil Batt for somehow allowing the 1995 wolf reintroduction by federal
authorities - he didn't - and Sen. Mike Crapo for crafting the Owyhee
Wilderness package.

Now he's firing at the Democrats: "The Democrats are really sensitive,"
Rammell said. "They are on the defense if you even breathe something about
Obama. If they can't take a joke - that's their problem, not mine."

By now, it ought to be clear that Rammell is a buffoon. He's also an easy
target for past foes, such as Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and current
opponents such as Gov. C. L. (Butch) Otter.

But what about the woman in Twin Falls whose "Obama tag" comment provoked
Rammell's idiotic response?

Where's the public condemnation for that?

Was there sweeping criticism of a northern Idaho man who put up a sign
"free public hanging" after Obama had been elected?

Better handled was the incident in which grade-school children in eastern
Idaho chanted "assassinate Obama," but there was virtually nothing said
about a public school teacher who declared Obama's election signaled the
death of democracy in this country. Nor has there been much said about
those who have waded into the waters of linking Obama's programs with
Hitler's Germany or TEA Party activists who produced a Fourth of July
Parade float displaying a tree of liberty with an ax nearby. Depicted on
its blade was the name of the 44th president of the United States.

However tempting it may be to dismiss these as the acts of a fringe
element - or even to say what's happened here is no worse than in other
states - this ignores Idaho's troubled history. Fairly or not, this is a
state that has been tainted by the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the Aryan
Nations of the 1980s and 1990s.

To leave these latest statements unchallenged reduces the shock value. If
someone can "joke" about Obama tags this week, what will next week bring?
Any person, any group can be dehumanized. And if it's OK to treat a
Democratic president this way today, what precedent will the critics of
the next Republican president follow?

Look no farther than Republican presidential nominee John McCain . At a
campaign rally last fall, a McCain supporter said: "I don't trust Obama
... He's an Arab."

"No, ma'am," McCain said. "He's a decent, family man, a citizen that I
just happen to have disagreements with."

When will Idaho's political leadership have its McCain moment?

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown