So, this fight isn’t really over the gas tax, it is a fight about the future of the Republican Party in Idaho. Will the far right conservatives fully subsume the Republican Party? Will they eventually oust Butch Otter as being too “moderate”? Will they impose some far right litmus test for belonging to the Republican Party (labeling everyone else RINO’s – Republican In Name Only)? Will they close their primary elections forcing people to register for their party to vote in their primary – all at public expense? FYI - a decision on a lawsuit - brought by the far right - to force the closing their party primary election is currently pending in front of Judge Winmill. All of these pressures are forcing Republican legislators to move inexorably further to the right/Sen. Elliott Werk (pictured), Working For Idaho. More here. H/T: Unequivocal Notion.

• Tuesday -- Cinco de Mayo/Unequivocal Notion
• Day 114 and counting: Political Darwinism/Kevin Richert
• Republican standoff/IdaBlue
• The Great Nonini/Randy Stapilus
• Rhetoric doesn't match changing wolf reality/Rocky Barker

Question: Do you think Sen. Werk's conclusion is correct -- that the standoff over gas taxes really is about the attempt by ultraconservative Repubs who control the House to gain greater control of the Idaho GOP?