Tag: Idaho

Idaho Won’t Name Giant Salamander State Amphibian

Buck Banks

They were ugly, they were slimy, and they were creepy. And I’ve not gotten over that. So to elevate them to the status of being the state amphibian, I’m not there yet.

— Rep. Ken Andrus (R), who voted against the measure a grade school student’s request that the Idaho giant salamander be named the state amphibian,” the Idaho Statesman reports. Andrus recalled being repulsed by them as a young boy.

Idaho GOP Wants to Abolish Anti-Discrimination Laws

Buck Banks

I’d hire a gay guy if I thought he was a good worker. But if he comes into work in a tutu … he’s not producing what I want in my office. … If a guy has a particular predilection and keeps it to himself, that’s fine. But if he wants to use my business as a platform for his lifestyle, why should I have to subsidize that? And that’s what these anti-discrimination laws do.

— Cornel Rasor, chairman of the Idaho GOP’s resolutions committee, commenting on Idaho Republican Party leaders calling on state lawmakers to invalidate local ordinances that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the Spokesman-Review reports.

Idaho Primary Results Confirm Palin’s Poor Judgment, Tea Party Disarray

Jon Ponder

Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho)
Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho)
A week after the tea party favorite lost the special election in Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district to a Democrat — and six days after Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul, a tea party favorite, imploded his campaign by coming out against the Civil Rights Act, results from Idaho’s primary yesterday produced yet another tea bagger snafu.

In the Republican race, Raul Labrador defeated the establishment favorite, Vaughn Ward, by 10 points, 48 percent to 38 percent. Ward, a Republican National Committee “Young Guns” top recruit, had been endorsed by Sarah Palin, who even did a drive-by campaign stop on his behalf.

Labrador was endorsed by a tea party group in Boise but couldn’t get the nod from Tea Party Express, the national astroturf organizer operated by the Republican consulting group, Russo Marsh + Rogers. In a truly remarkable move, TPE — the organization that staged the recent corporate-funded tea-party bus rallies — endorsed Rep. Walt Minnick, the incumbent Democrat, who ran unopposed. Minnick was the only Democrat to receive an endorsement from the collective tea party hive this year.

[…]