[Vision2020] Republicans voting down foolishness at convention?

[Ron Force]

June 26, 2010
Idaho Republicans push to the right at party convention
Committees say yes to a militia and paying taxes with silver. They 
say no to disbanding public schools.
BY JOHN MILLER - THE ASSOCIATED PRESSIDAHO FALLS - Measure by measure, delegates to 
Idaho's 2010 Republican Convention on Friday cemented their place at the head of the nation's stalwart conservatives.
More than three dozen 
proposals emerged from separate resolutions, rules and party platform 
committees at this biennial event, where the state's dominant party sets its compass for the next two years. The proposals still must win 
approval Saturday, when all 508 registered delegates are due to vote on 
them.
Even if just half survive to become part of the Idaho 
Republican Party's manifesto, they'll still underscore what's become a 
political fact of life: After the 2008 convention in Sandpoint, where 
Ron Paul Republicans made a raucous entry onto the scene, this 
conservative faction now stands at the tiller of the state GOP's boat.
One resolution favors establishing an independent Idaho militia, free of 
federal tethers.
A platform plank would define marriage as between a "naturally born" man and woman, barring transgender individuals - and going further than a 2006 state constitutional amendment.
Another would make GOP candidates sign a loyalty oath to the party platform - or disclose where they differ.
"Look at the resolutions this year," 
said Greg Collett, a delegate from Canyon County. "These would not have 
been passed two years ago."
Again and again, convention committee 
members from as far north as the Canadian border to the remote, 
Mormon-dominated mountain-and-lake region of the deep southeast pushed 
through measures that trumpeted their right-leaning principles.
With them, they carried pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution - and 
libertarian-leaning Texas congressman Paul's book, "End the Fed," which 
calls for abolishing the Federal Reserve. 
They backed measures 
meant to put their money - or their silver and gold - where their mouths were. "Let free Idahoans pay taxes and other fees due to the State, 
County and City in silver and or gold in any form," read one resolution 
awaiting Saturday's vote.
To be sure, there was grumbling among 
those who in 2008 might have been known as mainstream Republicans. The 
Sandpoint convention proved the downfall of then-Chairman Kirk Sullivan, a vaunted fundraiser ousted by lawyer and lobbyist Norm Semanko.
"I don't understand the point of this," said Phil Hardy, an Ada County 
delegate whose day job is communications adviser to the majority caucus 
in the Idaho Senate.
But Hardy - again and again - found himself 
on the losing side.
One conservative delegate said that only Ada 
and Twin Falls counties brought with them to Idaho Falls members of the 
old-guard Republican establishment.
"Other than those two 
counties, I'd say conservatives have been successful getting their 
(delegates) here without a fight," said Larry Spencer, from Bonner 
County in northern Idaho.
Spencer went further: U.S. Rep. Mike 
Simpson, due to speak Saturday, "is not much of a Republican," he said.
Simpson has fallen out with hard-core conservatives over his stances on the 
2008 Wall Street bailout - he backed it - and a wilderness plan for 
central Idaho.
Among other resolutions: The Legislature should 
nullify President Obama's health care reforms; Arizona's immigration 
reforms were cheered; and any federal order declaring carbon dioxide a 
pollutant would be ignored by Idaho as "junk science."
"I find it 
offensive for people to say things like greenhouse gas is a pollutant," 
said Lucas Baumbach, a Boise Tea Party activist and delegate from Ada 
County.
Not everything passed.
A measure demanding 
Republicans reject funding for school-based health clinics that 
vaccinate children against diseases - "unnecessary drugging of  
children," the resolution concluded - was defeated. So was a push that 
sought to endorse legislation to legalize medical marijuana. And a bid 
to disband all Idaho public schools "at the earliest possible 
opportunity" also failed."We voted down anything that would have 
made us look foolish as a party," said Jim Hollingsworth, a delegate 
from Kootenai County and candidate for state representative. "The rest 
of them are pretty accurate reflections of Republican values."


      
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