<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 13.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px"><font face="Geneva" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Geneva">Idaho Republicans have neglected the real issues<br> <br> On Nov. 4, Idahoans will go to the polls and overwhelmingly vote for John McCain and "Snow Job Square Glasses" (Sarah Palin), despite the abject failure of Republican economic policies. Perhaps Idaho's Republicans can be excused for their collective inattention - their focus has been on other, more pressing conservative issues.<br> <br> While mortgage salesmen packaged bad loans, Idaho Republicans moved to ban gay marriage.<br> <br> While Wall Street financiers concocted complex credit swaps, Idaho Republicans rallied to keep the Ten Commandments monument in a Boise park.<br> <br> While investment firms piled debt upon debt, Idaho Republicans cheered on local proselytizers who used a media stunt to intrude their religion in China.<br> <br> While foreign banks continued to buy America's debt, Idaho Republicans loudly insisted they were opposed to patriotic taxes to pay for their wars and their warfare state.<br> <br> While right-wing talk shows regularly assailed an imagined socialist conspiracy, Idaho Republicans were relieved when their man, George W. Bush, began nationalizing the economy.<br> <br> Henry David Thoreau must have been thinking of Republicans and religionists when he wrote: "There is no creed so false but faith can make it true."<br> <br> GARY L. BENNETT [A Goldwater Republican, in a letter to the Idaho Statesman, Boise]</font><font face="Arial" size="4" style="font: 13.0px Arial"><br> </font></p>
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