Huckleberries Online

WaPost: Labrador latest insurgent to buck establishment, then consider joining it

May 28, 2010 11:08 a.m. • 44 comments

The Washington Post, in its “The Fix” political column today, calls Idaho 1st Congressional District GOP nominee Raul Labrador “the latest insurgent candidate to beat back the establishment and then be faced with joining forces with it,” and reports that Labrador is “going with wholesale changes to his staff and is looking at bringing in more established political team, including possibly some consultants favored by Washington.” It also notes Labrador’s endorsement yesterday by Mitt Romney - who yesterday endorsed Idaho’s entire top GOP slate, including Gov. Butch Otter, Sen. Mike Crapo, Rep. Mike Simpson and Labrador - and says that in an interview, Labrador told The Fix that his politics are similar to those of former Idaho Rep. Bill Sali, but his approach is different./Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise

Question: Will Labrador become an ‘establishment’ GOP candidate?

44 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Gary D Rhodes on May 28 at 11:34 a.m.
Hopefully not.
Bubblehead on May 28 at 11:34 a.m.
It depends. If Minnick supporters can force him to continually defend his nuttier stances (repeal 17th Amendment, return to Gold Standard, leave UN) and link him to Sali (as he did himself in the interview for the WaPo article linked above), he might be radioactive to establishment Republicans.
bpoole on May 28 at 11:35 a.m.
He always has been, this is nothing new.

Some should pay closer attention.
Gary D Rhodes on May 28 at 11:48 a.m.
Bubble, can you pick one of these “nutty” positions, and rationally make the case as to why it is beyond debatable?
Bubblehead on May 28 at 11:57 a.m.
Sorry, I don’t waste my time arguing with Birthers. If you’d like, you can search through my blog.
Sisyphus on May 28 at 12:00 p.m.
“and rationally make the case as to why it is beyond debatable?”—asked the birther. ROTFLMAO

The WaPo article was weak. Clearly Ward was an establishment candidate with lots o’ money. The newbie got exposed for what he was. Labrador has yet to prove himself. Labrador hasn’t formed a campaign beyond a couple buddies volunteering. Let’s see what he can cobble together and lets see which backers go to him or go to Minnick. If Minnick’s fundraising is any indication, Labrador certainly ain’t gonna move further right. No matter what, there’s clearly a choice in this race.
Soaf on May 28 at 12:03 p.m.
Bubblehead on May 28 at 11:57 a.m.

Sorry, I don’t waste my time arguing with Birthers. If you’d like, you can search through my blog.
===============================================

Game…….

Set……….

Match!!!!!!
Wes on May 28 at 12:04 p.m.
This guy is just another Idaho politician from the nutty fringe. Most likely he will vote as he is told by party leadership.
CaptainAmerica on May 28 at 12:09 p.m.
Keep your ears open for a breaking story regarding potential law breaking with man who did YOU TUBE…you heard it first here on HBO!
Phaedrus on May 28 at 12:29 p.m.
Sorry, I don’t waste my time arguing with Birthers.—BH

Classic. Polite and to the point. GAry, perhaps you’d have been better served coming to HBO as a reasonable commenter, first, rather than a birther. ;-)
Phaedrus on May 28 at 12:30 p.m.
But, to the picture on this thread:
Have you ever seen a sadder looking person than the guy in the upper right corner, the one being ignored by everyone else?
Gary D Rhodes on May 28 at 12:45 p.m.
Phad, I’ll use my first amendment rights as I choose, regardless of your opinion, but thanks anyway for the helpful guidance.

It is easy to see that all progressives have are insults and empty platitudes.
Sisyphus on May 28 at 1:02 p.m.
That doesn’t look sad Phaedrus. It looks more like contempt. I actually feel for Ward. I wish him the best.

Now 12:45 is sad.
Bubblehead on May 28 at 1:12 p.m.
OK, that was unnecessarily rude of me. I do recognize that nothing I say will make the Birther change his mind, but I do like to hear myself write, so I’ll give a shot at answering his “question”, using small words. (Might need to a couple of posts.)

First off, the 17th Amendment. Looking at history, it was adopted because business interests, often out of states, were buying Senate elections — it’s much easier to buy off (in Idaho’s case) 53 legislators than the majority of the electorate; additionally, there were many seats going unfilled, often for years, because legislatures couldn’t agree on who to elect. The “State’s Rights” argument for returning to election by Legislatures is basically people with an extreme agenda realizing they have no chance of winning actual statewide elections, but hope that they can win half the votes on a district level in 26 states to pass legislation. Clearly, the plan is delusional, but it’s all they have. Of course, they wrap it in the “return to Republic” verbiage that’s so important to their followers. Those who say they want to “return to the vision of the Founders” can be ignored unless they also want to repeal the 12th Amendment. Intriguingly, the Orca Stoner is the only person I’ve read who’s ideologically pure on that count.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Bubblehead on May 28 at 1:26 p.m.
Next, returning to the Gold Standard, or “sound money”. Yes, this used to be how money worked through the 19th and early 20th centuries, and there were clearly problems with it then — it really held back economic expansion, non-bankers couldn’t get money (leading to William Jennings Bryan), and even bankers had Panics (e.g. 1873). Still, it kind of worked — most everybody used it.

That’s where the problem comes in. Essentially everybody left the gold standard by the 30s, “hard currency” went by the wayside with the end of Bretton Woods in 1971, and now no country is on it (Switzerland abandoned full gold convertibility in 2000.) Now, imagine the U.S. returns to the Gold Standard (or even includes silver). Now, you’ll have one currency that is backed by gold, is essentially inflation-proof, and will probably undergo deflation. Imagine you’re a financier in a foreign country. Which currency will you hold? There’s the problem — we’ll send our gold-backed dollars overseas to buy oil, they’ll keep them, we won’t be able to print more (remember, it has to be backed by gold), and money in the U.S. becomes more and more scarce. The economy grinds to a halt. But hey, we’re following some philosophy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard#Post-war_international_gold-dollar_standard_.281946.E2.80.931971.29

I’m getting bored, so for getting out of the UN: American isolationism sure worked out for us between the World Wars, huh? Here’s the thing. Libertarians like this stuff, but there are a lot fewer of them than they think. Consider the 2nd District primary — with low (<30%) turnout in which you could assume the politically-obsessed would be overrepresented, the clear “Constitutional” candidate still got only 25% of the vote; same with the Governor’s race statewide. That works out to about 7% of the electorate really caring about this stuff. If Labrador tries to run on it, he’ll lose badly.
Nick_Adams on May 28 at 1:44 p.m.
Bubbles is on fire today—nice. Can’t wait to see a Raul Labrador fan site soon.
Nick_Adams on May 28 at 1:46 p.m.
Interesting to see Tom Luna—one of Ward’s campaign co-chairs—already sucking up to Labrador. Hey, everybody loves a winner, right?
Smacky on May 28 at 1:58 p.m.
still waiting captain America…still waiting…the excitement is killin me.
Bubblehead on May 28 at 2:03 p.m.
@Nick Adams - Thanks! Actually, after my first piece on Labrador, I said I wasn’t going to do a “Raul Labrador Fan” this year; I actually like the guy, and don’t think he really believes what he’s saying; he just needs to get votes. (Plus, it’s been done, so everyone would know it was me anyway.)

http://bubbleheads.blogspot.com/2010/02/idaho-first-congressional-district.html

I am proud, however, that the Bill Sali Fan website, which hasn’t had a new post since November 2008 (and ended with a RickRoll), is still on the front page when you do a Google search for Bill Sali.
Gary D Rhodes on May 28 at 2:04 p.m.
Phad, You should try and answer two simple questions if you can.
1. Are there requirements to be POTUS?
2. In your own opinion, should that law be enforced?
Sisyphus on May 28 at 2:14 p.m.
Interesting. That seemed to do the trick Bubbles. I was dubious. Good job.

And thanks Nick for emphasizing the Lunatic connection. Why is a politician at the helm of a sinking ship so happy? I’ll be so happy to get a professional back in that job.
Smacky on May 28 at 2:25 p.m.
How do we really know, without performing a carbon dating procedure, that President Obama is of age to be president? Just sayin.
Sisyphus on May 28 at 2:48 p.m.
I’m tellin’ ya Smacky, he was hatched. But I wish this was true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vws9fTtQgz4

Then we’d get that hole plugged.
fortboise on May 28 at 3:57 p.m.
A snapshot can be deceiving, but it’s hard not to engage our propensity for reading body language and facial expression. The front page picture of the unity rally the Statesman ran on Thursday had the same message as this one does, however, so I’m taking my first impression as validated. Ward is stone-faced, his wife ebullient.

Congratulations to Mrs. Ward. She can go back to the quiet business of being the breadwinner for her family now.
fortboise on May 28 at 4:02 p.m.
Gary, you seem to have your brain caught in a monkey trap. Let it go, man. Get on with your life. Do something more interesting.

Barack Hussein Obama is the President of the United States.
Gary D Rhodes on May 28 at 4:22 p.m.
Bubble, my problem with fiat money printed without meaningful restriction, is prone to abuse, which will eventually lead to inflation, a silent robber of a lifetimes wealth accumulation. In an effort to pay off entitlements in the near future, this monetization of our debt will be catastrophic.
Also, the fed is a private group that is far too cozy and secretive. The people that run the fed are at Goldman Sachs, then the US Treasury Department then the fed again. They get rich on money that is never even printed. Transparency and scrutiny is direly needed.

As far as the 17th amendment, I think the Constitution set up a good system of checks and balances. Independent states would be laboratories to discover what type of governance worked best. Now we are homogenized by DC.
At the present time, there are no checks and balances available to the states over federal power or over Congress itself in any area. In the original design by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution, there was an effective check on Congress through the state legislatures’ power to appoint (and remove) U.S. Senators. As such, the core of the problem with state’s rights issues lies in the passage of the 17th Amendment which abrogated the state legislatures’ right to appoint U.S. Senators in favor of popular election of those officials. It resulted in a failure of the federalist structure, enabled federal deficit spending, inappropriate federal mandates, and the evaporation of state influence over national policy.

And Bubble, do you really believe the UN is effective and that we are getting our money’s worth?
I don’t.
Phaedrus on May 28 at 6:04 p.m.
You should try and answer two simple questions if you can.-GDR

I can. I have. And I won’t continue to do so. Back down your hole, Alice.

http://www.the-office.com/bedtime-story/alice-vertical.jpg
Cabbage Boy on May 28 at 6:06 p.m.
“And Bubble, do you really believe the UN is effective and that we are getting our money’s worth?”

Hahaha. I don’t know which is funnier. Effective or the thought we could come close to getting our moneys worth.
Cabbage Boy on May 28 at 6:09 p.m.
And Sis, are you satisfied that minnick will have an opponent now?
bpoole on May 28 at 6:47 p.m.
GDR>>

The reasons the founders believed in the 17th amendment was due to their lack of trust in the public.

GDR, please support this with facts: Your statement relates to the 17th amendment.

“It resulted in a failure of the federalist structure, enabled federal deficit spending, inappropriate federal mandates, and the evaporation of state influence over national policy.”
Gary D Rhodes on May 30 at 11:00 a.m.
@bpoole
The passage of Obamacare is a good example to start with., and the dumping of millions of uninsured people and their costs onto states that are already facing huge and insurmountable fiscal problems.
If you are really interested in learning, I will be happy to go further.
Gary D Rhodes on May 30 at 11:34 a.m.
Bubblehead on May 28 at 11:57 a.m.
Sorry, I don’t waste my time arguing with Birthers.>>

Bubble, so far there has been no debate or argument, just name calling.

My simple question has not been answered, just sliming and obfuscating by the Obatrons to shut anyone up that tries to hold truth to power.

To be lawfully eligible to be POTUS, you must be natural born.
Where is the lawful proof?
BTW, The COLB does nothing to establish compliance with the ‘natural born’ requirement without additional documentation which has not been supplied..

Why can’t someone just supply an answer, and hold the demeaning comments for someone these bullying tactics work upon.
Phaedrus on May 30 at 2:37 p.m.
BTW…—GDR

And that is where the birthers go down the rabbit hole.
bpoole on May 30 at 8:07 p.m.
The passage of Obamacare is a good example to start with., and the dumping of millions of uninsured people and their costs onto states that are already facing huge and insurmountable fiscal problems.>>>GDR

Actually, that’s not a good case, since those who voted yes on this, were, elected by a majority of people in the country. Sorry, if those whom were elected were not the one’s you voted for, that’s how it works.

To go further, are you suggesting as a Libertarian that individuals should continue to free load off the system?
spokelooneh on May 30 at 9:50 p.m.
god I love the Birthers.
Pure comedy gold.

And they have NO idea how ridiculous they are. Completely clueless. It’s not right to make fun of the infirm and ignorant, I know. But they’re so sincere in their delusion, it’s hard not to mock them. And gotta give ‘em their due, they take a licking time after time, and keep ticking.
hmoffsuite on May 31 at 6:02 a.m.
bpoole >> “Actually, that’s not a good case, since those who voted yes on this, were, elected by a majority of people in the country. Sorry, if those whom were elected were not the one’s you voted for, that’s how it works.”

It doesn’t surprise me that you buy in to the Barney Frank explanation and justification of bad governing. Those that voted for this and other matters were elected to vote the will of the people, not the will of the politician and their personal agendas. Suppose they thought it in our best interest to vote themselves a million dollar a year pay raises. You would have no problem with that? Fortunately, many of those that voted for their own agendas and not the will of the people will not be around long in this new political environment of displeasure with politicians.
Gary D Rhodes on May 31 at 7:09 a.m.
Loon, more personal attacks, no legal proof.

Same as it ever was.

You progressives ought to come up with some new names.
That’ll show me how smart you are, and how dumb I am. Or, you could take the same amount of time and tell me why I am wrong about the law.

If it’s just a case that some people are too important to obey the law, then just say that.
MatthewRoot on May 31 at 9:23 a.m.
Rhodes, the legal proof has been provided, you just chose to deny it (not to mention that President Obama’s mother was a U.S. citizen, which makes him a natural born citizen). Lawsuits challenging his citizenship have been dismissed in federal court, and Orly Taitz was fined and sanctioned for her nonsense. Hawaii officials have certified that they inspected his original Birth Certificate. You only indicate your lack of reason and lack of sound judgment when you go down this rabbit hole.
idawa on May 31 at 10:04 a.m.
So, according to GDR’s logic, I could not be president. Despite the fact that I was born in Utah, as one of the 7th generation in my family to be born in the USA; alI i have from Utah is the CBL which is nearly identical to what Obama has shown? Of course, I doubt gary would be as perturbed given that I’m white with a Christian name…
nic on May 31 at 10:22 a.m.
“You progressives ought to come up with some new names.
That’ll show me how smart you are, and how dumb I am.”

Oh.. so… tempting. Unfortunately, for you to see your level of incompetence, you would have to fix your rectal-cranial inversion.

And there’s so much irony in your accusation of “more personal attacks,” when insults seem to be your default rhetorical device. I know, I know, you were just cracking jokes and trying to be funny. But you know the adage: if you have to explain the joke, it’s not funny. You are as hilarious as a hernia and possess the comedic timing of a hemorrhoid. You’re as witty as a flat tire.

Since we’re on the subject of birth certificates, I’ll dwell here for a while. Your beliefs in this topic make Larry Spencer’s conspiracies sound plausible. If calling you a “birther” is an insult, you have thinner skin than cheap toilet paper. No one is willing to debate this issue with you, because no amount of proof will change your mind. You could be holding the original document if your seedy hands and not believe. You could be mystically transported back in time into the Hawaiian hospital to observe baby Obama burst from his mother’s womb and not believe. If you shaved Chuck Norris’ beard to find a duplicate of the original tattooed to his chin, you would not still not believe. Your theory is not one based in logic but in delusion. When people refuse to debate you, it’s not because they fear your intellect or lack evidence, it’s because your views are insignificant. You deserve to be ignored.

You have the world view of an inchworm. You’re more confused than a staving baby at a nude beach. You alone could disprove Darwin’s survival of the fittest. You are as bright as Alaska in December. Your posts lower the collective human intelligence to room temperature IQ. The founding fathers would take one look at you and think ‘oh snap, we screwed up.’
nic on May 31 at 10:34 a.m.
Oh, and I wouldn’t consider my self a progressive. I’m sure there is much (politically speaking) that Gary and I could agree on. This birther nonsense is not one of those issues. And since that seems to be all he posts…
Phaedrus on May 31 at 10:48 a.m.
That’ll show me how smart you are, and how dumb I am. —GDR

I thought that was self-evident. ;-)
JIMMYMAC on May 31 at 6:39 p.m.
Nic,

off subject…how would you best describe yourself politically? I have drawn my conclusions based on your posts but am interested in where you see yourself.
nic on May 31 at 7:35 p.m.
@ Jimmy… Potpourri (can you call that a political leaning?)

I have some conservative values, and some liberal values…. and some socialist tenancies. I vote purple. I don’t think any one party has it right.

Stupidity amuses me, and those that think they know it all bother me. And if you could define me politically, you know me better than I know myself.

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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.