[Vision2020] Idaho Needs Its Own McCain Moment

[lfalen]

Your last sentence is misleading. Everyone of the top republican leaders in the state condemned Rammell's comment and called for him to apologize.
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Tom Hansen" thansen at moscow.com
Date: Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:31:55 -0700
To: "Moscow Vision 2020" vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Idaho Needs Its Own McCain Moment

> "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?
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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
> 
> 
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