[Vision2020] Grand Old Party

[Tom Hansen]

Introduction . . .

http://www.TomandRodna.com/Transfer/Intro.mp3

Courtesy of today's (June 20, 2014) Lewiston Tribune.

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Grand Old Party
Marty Trillhaase
JEERS ... to Idaho Republican Party Chairman Barry Peterson. As the state GOP convention opened in Moscow last week, Peterson was facing two challengers - technology businessman Doug Sayer, reportedly the choice of Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter, and Blackfoot sheep breeder Mike Duff.
Peterson stacked the credentials committee, which then turned around and disabled potential opponents in the Ada and Bannock county delegations. Then the convention deadlocked and adjourned Saturday without electing new officers.
Now Peterson claims he retains the title.
Not so fast. Jason Risch, the Idaho GOP's attorney, says Peterson's term ended when the convention closed. John Phillippe Jr., the Republican National Committee's attorney, agrees.
Never fear. When you need a legal opinion made to order, call in attorney Christ Troupis. The unsuccessful candidate for attorney general told Peterson what he wanted to hear - stay put. Pathetic, isn't it?
JEERS ... to Gov. Otter. On the eve of the GOP convention, Otter faced an obvious choice. Since Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, had come within 12,085 votes of defeating the two-term governor, Otter should have thrown him a bone - chairmanship of the Idaho GOP.
But when the deal was offered to him Thursday, Otter blanched.
So what's plan B? Has Otter been working the phones, proposing a consensus candidate? No, he's manning a foxhole at his Star ranch.
All of which is another reminder of how Otter approaches his day job: Head down, passive and keep kicking the cans down the road.
JEERS ... to LeeAnn Callear of Orofino. Regional chairwoman and a member of the GOP's executive committee, Callear is no fan of Otter. Here's what she told 375 of her nearest and dearest friends in an email:
"I am unhappy that Butch Otter is a corrupt, vindictive, hateful, childish bully! I am ashamed that I helped put him into office. We knew he was an adulterer. We knew he was a drunk."
OK, that's walking up to the line and dangling a toe over it. But this is politics. Otter has a drunken driving conviction and a divorce on his record.
Then Callear dragged Otter's wife, Lori, into her diatribe: "We knew his wife was a filthy-mouthed, mean woman. Why did we let this go so far?"
Who's going too far, Ms. Callear?
JEERS ... to Chuck Reitz. Co-chairman of the GOP convention's credentials committee, the Shoshone County Republican had this to say to a group of women who didn't like the way delegates from Ada, Bannock and Power counties had been stripped of their votes: "Just hold on, take a breath and go refresh your lipstick."
Where is this guy coming from?
A "Mad Men" episode?
Dallas circa 1969?
Salt Lake City a decade later?
No. Moscow, 2014.
JEERS ... to state Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll, R-Cottonwood. In the midst of the Moscow maelstrom, she proposed a constitutional amendment recognizing "every child's right to a female mother and a male father."
"What this is basically saying is that same-sex couples don't have a right to a child," Nuxoll said.
So Nuxoll - who champions the right of the individual and has railed against Obamacare as a government plot to "take our children away, which is the same way the Nazis did" - now proposes to establish a Big Brother to police families.
Would she take a child away from same-sex parents?
Would she have Big Brother intervene in a divorce?
Would she remove a child from a widow?
How would Nuxoll treat a woman who has been abandoned by her child's father?
Even for the Idaho Republican Party, it was too much. Nuxoll's idea died for lack of support.
JEERS ... to former House Speaker - and GOP nominee for secretary of state - Lawerence (Boss) Denney. Along with his co-chairman on the public lands interim committee, Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, Denney has begun burning up tens of thousands of your tax dollars hiring Boise lawyer William Myers III to deliver the message they want.
So far, Myers has collected $41,762.
Worse, Winder and Denney kept some of their own committee members in the dark. Senate Minority Leader Michelle Stennett found out when Winder spilled the beans to a Montana legislative panel last month.
But when Denney's Democratic opponent for secretary of state, Holli Woodings, called him on it, the former House speaker started backpedaling.
Don't blame him.
Blame House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, and Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg. They control the $200,000 legislative slush fund.
Of course, who asked Bedke and Hill to approve the plan in the first place?
Funny how Denney sidestepped Woodings' complaint about blindsiding Stennett and other members of the panel.
JEERS ... to the voters of Latah and Nez Perce counties. Idaho's May 20 primary was a low turnout affair - about 26.1 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. But what happened here was appalling.
Latah County's turnout came in at 16.8 percent of registered voters, worst in the state. Runner up for that dubious distinction was Nez Perce County, which came in at a dismal 17.3 percent.
It's not as if voters faced long lines on Election Day. Anytime during the 45 days leading up to the election, they could have voted absentee. And they had the option of a mail-in ballot.
This was a big election. A Supreme Court and several District Court judges were elected. The direction of Idaho's governing party was set.
Yuck. - M.T.
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Seeya at the Latah Democrats Street Party, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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