Huckleberries Online

Richert: Mormon Crapo’s Brewery Tie

Aug. 28, 2010 7:32 a.m. • 19 comments

A s we roll into one of those precious last weekends of pre-election-season summer, there is something fitting about an item that blends politics and beer. Sen. Mike Crapo will tour a Pocatello craft brewery today, as he touts his bill designed to give a tax break to small breweries. On May 11, the Idaho Republican was one of four original co-sponsors of a bill to cut the breweries’ federal excise taxes in half. The bill now has 24 co-sponsors, which improves its prospects of making its way onto the Senate docket. Eight co-sponsors come from the West’s barley belt, but it’s still a curious bipartisan coalition. How else can you describe a bill that brings together the likes of Crapo and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.? Crapo is an unlikely champion for microbreweries, as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which disapproves of drinking. But - as Crapo explained in May to Statesman reporter and beer blogger Patrick Orr - he sees the issue as “a business, not a moral, decision”/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: What do you make of U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, who is a Mormon, leading the charge to win a tax break for small breweries?

19 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

jreighley on August 28 at 9:56 a.m.
It is a noble cause..

Brewing is something that can be done by pretty much anyonBe with a little practice.. But the governments of this nation have so many regulations that it is nearly impossible for small breweries to succeed to any significant degree.

The government should not be subsidizing the preservation of needless oligopolies.
Phaedrus on August 28 at 10:32 a.m.
I’m glad to see that Sen. Crapo can separate his personal, religious, “moral” views from the secular, legal government side of things.

BTW what is the Senator’s position on a woman’s right to make her own choice regarding reproductive rights?
Sisyphus on August 28 at 10:54 a.m.
He ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But I loved the questions he asked of the CBO on repealing health care reform.

http://43sb.com/?q=node/5634

Funny he hasn’t sent out a press release on this yet.
kamm on August 28 at 12:18 p.m.
Anything for a vote.
hhuseland on August 28 at 1:08 p.m.
The ideal that most politicians claim but few deliver, is separating their personal beliefs from those of their constituency. The senator is to be commended for not foisting his religous views onto others. Aside from that, I’m a beer drinker who doesn’t aspire to those lofty traits.
hhuseland on August 28 at 1:09 p.m.
Oh,and to phaedrus … What about balancing with the baby’s rights?
Phaedrus on August 28 at 1:20 p.m.
What about balancing with the baby’s rights?—hh

it’s only “a baby” after it is born. Then it has rights.
almostinnocentbystander on August 29 at 7:21 a.m.
Phaedrus - didn’t you take high school biology? It’s human and meets all the scientific definitions of ‘alive’ … and how did you guys jump from beer to babies? Mike Crapo is a paragon of erudition in the Senate (‘kay that’s not saying much) but he’s a smart, restrained guy who clearly is not cramming his beliefs anywhere but is trying to keep business alive …unlike President Obummer.
Fishwife on August 29 at 10:27 a.m.
Crapo was the 6th largest recipient of Enron campaign contributions. I remember him coming up with a phony justification. This guy is a smooth, master hyporcrite..and a lawyer.
samasterson on August 29 at 2:24 p.m.
Having lived in eastern Idaho, and having an relevant observation post working in the local financial services industries, I can attest that there are many Mormon farmers in eastern and southern Idaho who sell grain products for use in breweries - Budweiser and Corona both have malting plants in eastern Idaho.

According to USA Hops, Idaho is the 3rd largest producer of hops for the beer industry. Lowering the excise taxes on products originating from Idaho is good business. Too bad there aren’t better opportunities to lower taxes and regulations on more of Idaho’s industries.
kamm on August 29 at 6:03 p.m.
@Herb Huseland
@almostinnocentbystander

A fetus is a baby when it is born; until then, it is a fetus.
almostinnocentbystander on August 29 at 8:04 p.m.
Do you know the translation of ‘fetus’? How often do you lapse into Latin? Do you call a pregnant woman a ‘gravida’? You can label anything and degrade it, a rose is still a rose, renaming doesn’t change the inherent qualities of the object, that just excuses treating a very small child like a stolen Toyota in a chop shop. Babies in the womb act amazingly, well, human. Technology will eventually catch up and stop the barbarity we attempt to sanitize by catch phrases like ‘women’s rights’. If you’re really for women’s rights - go talk big about it in downtown Mecca - they’d treat you like a fetus and I bet you’d hate it.
ejs on August 29 at 8:19 p.m.
Takes all kinds to make a world. Just don’t feel like I can trust a Morman, kind of like the line from that song Back Stabbers
“Smil’in in your face all the time they wanna take your place; the stabbers”
They pretend that they like you and sometimes do if it suits them but if it doesn’t they will kick dirt at you if your not one of them.
At least with the Jahovah Witness drones they make no secret that they can’t be your friend. Pretty Crappy but at least you know where you stand.
nic on August 30 at 9:02 a.m.
@ almostinnocentbystander

Relax, you’re starting to foam at the mouth. True, the word fetus has it’s roots in Latin, but it is still in use within the medical world. If you want to escape all words that stemmed from Latin, you’ll have to dispose of half of the English language.

You know… simple words like minor or uniform. Those come from Latin.
Kage_Mann on August 30 at 9:10 a.m.
“They pretend that they like you and sometimes do if it suits them but if it doesn’t they will kick dirt at you if your not one of them”.

I guess you know nothing about being a Morman.
nic on August 30 at 9:35 a.m.
Other words used by almostinnocentbystander that came from Latin…

Human
Scientific
Definition
Erudition
Senate
Clearly
President
Lapse
Degrade
Rose
Inherent
Qualities
Object
Eventually
Barbarity
Attempt
Sanitize
Treat

If you’re going to criticize someone for their use of the word “fetus” because of it’s Latin origins, you should probably stike all of the preceding words from your vocabulary.
moscow_minidoka on August 30 at 9:55 a.m.
“I guess you know nothing about being a Morman.”

Like how to spell “Mormon”? Looks like some of you can’t tell the difference between a Mormon and a Merman.
moscow_minidoka on August 30 at 10:00 a.m.
Having grown up in southcentral Idaho, I don’t see Crapo doing anything that tons of LDS farmers do every year, which is to allow business to trump codes of conduct. As someone else mentioned, lots of LDS farmers grow barley and hops despite being advised by their faith to avoid alcohol. I knew a couple of farmers who tried to claim that their barley went to feed cattle, but they were full of baloney.

It’s a good decision by Crapo, and it doesn’t make him any more of a hypocrite than every LDS farmer in southern Idaho who grows barley for Coors, Busch, and Corona.
OutofStaterTater on August 30 at 10:49 a.m.
Good grief. Here we have an example of a politician doing the right thing, and yet there are those on this blog who just can’t bring themselves to give the guy any credit. There are 2 huge reasons to appreciate what Crapo is doing here:

1. He’s not letting his religious beliefs stand in the way of helping his constituents;
2. He’s reaching across the aisle to work with Democrats to get something done.

Both of these points are what people claim to want in our elected officials, yet when it actually happens, people refuse to acknowledge it for what it is. Worse, some (I’m looking at you, Phaedrus) quickly hijack the conversation to something that has NOTHING to do with the topic, just to draw attention away from your blind, unyielding partisanship.

Weak sauce.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.