The optics are not good on this one. Not quite four months since Sen. Michael D. Crapo was arrested in Virginia and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, the Idaho Republican apparently feels right at home heading to a fundraiser at a private townhouse owned by a liquor conglomerate … Crapo spokesman Lindsay Nothern said the fundraiser was planned before Crapo’s arrest.  “He has used the facility for quite some time for various fundraisers,” Nothern said. “My understanding is the event was booked prior to the incident over the holidays”/Heard on the Hill, Roll Call's Gossip Blog. More here.

• H/T: Kestrel West Morning Memo

Question: Really?

Democratic congressional hopeful Jimmy Farris has all but put Congressman Raul Labrador's face on a milk carton with the frantic headline: “Have you seen his man?” After all, the freshman Republican hasn't just blown off his under-funded opponent or even the independent Project Vote Smart; he's also AWOL much of the time from his day job. According to GovTrack, which follows Congress, the freshman Idaho Republican has missed 72 of 1,531 recorded votes — 4.7 percent. During the first quarter of this year, Labrador missed more than one in 10 recorded votes. “He owes it to the people of Idaho to tell them why he's missed those votes,” Farris said. Labrador's overall absentee rate is nearly double that of his Idaho Republican colleagues. Second District Congressman Rep. Mike Simpson has missed 2.9 percent of the votes during the nearly 14 years in office. Sen. Mike Crapo has missed 2.2 percent in the last 19 years. Since January of 2009, Sen. Jim Risch has missed just 1.5 percent/Marty Trillhaase, Lewiston Tribune. More here. (Wikipedia photo for illustrative purposes)

Question: Has freshman Congressman Raul Labrador already put his personal interests ahead of Idaho's?

1st Congressional District candidate Jimmy Farris called out Congressman Raul Labrador today for his dismal attendance record in Congress, and wondered what exactly is keeping the congressman from doing his job. “Congressman Labrador has been absent from Congress twice as much as the average representative,” said Farris. “He’s been absent for more than twice the amount of votes that Idaho’s last three First District congressmen – Minnick, Sali, and Otter – had missed. Congress is only in session an average of 140 days a year, so where is he? This is just another example of how Congressman Labrador is not earning his $174,000 a year salary. If any average person – who has to work a lot more than 140 days a year and does not have the luxury of skipping out on work whenever they want – was absent from their job twice as much as their co-workers, they would be fired”/Jimmy Farris for Congress news release.

Question: Farris is referring to a Gov.Tracks.us report that shows freshman Congressman Labrador has missed 4.7% of roll call votes, almost twice the congressional average. Do you think that's too much?

Huckleberries has received the minutes of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee meeting of Feb. 28, which includes of the official roll call on a motion by Jeff Ward to disinvite Richard Mack from speaking at the county Lincoln Day Dinner. The motion passed 31-30 but was later overturned unilaterally by the executive committee on a technicality.

• In favor (31): Rodney Twete, Paul Matthews, Fred Meckel, Donna Montgomery, Jan Olsen, Duane Rasmussen, Ronald Honner, Barry McHugh, Luke Sommer, Jacquie Mayor, Peggy Miller, Mike McDowell, Marv Lekstrum, Jim Pierce, Gary Ingram, Julie Chadderdon, Ruth Smith, Kelly Chadderdon, Sharon Culbreth, Linda Nelson, Anita Banta, Joy Seward, Rachel Riggs, Larry Berreth, Jeff Ward, Ron Lahr, Betty Ann Henderson, Ron Nilson, Bob Hollingsworth, Jeff Tyler and Brad Corkill.
• Opposed (30): Roger Benoit, Tom Robinson, Melanie Vanderfeer, Neil Oliver, Brad Salie, Bruce Maddux, Jeannine Frisque, Frank Reid, Ruthie Johnson, Doug Weir, Steve Adams, Allen Richardson, Jim Brannon, Mike Oliver, Bjorn Handeen, Jimmy Masters, Wendy Medlock, Fred Ostermeyer, Bob Whitehead, Bryan Crabtee, Larry Gilman, Joe Malloy, John Cross, Tony Wisniewski, Ronald Mendive, Alice Rankin, Kenneth Chausse, George Mitchell, Duane Thompson, Chairwoman Tina Jacobson.
• GOP Central Committee minutes of Feb. 28 meeting here

Question: Does this vote define which side of the GOP divide county precinct committee members are on, whether Reagan/Reasonable Republican or the Constitutionalist-Libertarian?

Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s self-congratulatory Thanksgiving Day column (The New Normal) claiming a number of highly debatable “successes” for Idaho on his watch reminds one of a story his idol, former President Ronald Reagan, liked to tell. It’s the story about the guy digging madly through a huge pile of horse manure convinced that there has to be a pony in there someplace because there’s so much horse s___. With all due respect to the office he holds, Butch is just plain wrong in almost all he claims. It’s hard to believe he can look at his mismanagement of so much and claim success. This goes beyond rose-colored glasses, beyond the normal PR spin one has come to expect of so many of today’s officeholders. This is pure, unadulterated horse manure which anyone with an understanding of factual information can smell from far away/Chris Carlson, The Carlson Chronicles. More here.

• Chris Carlson, author of “Cecil Andrus: Idaho's Greatest Governor,” will tell the noon Friday luncheon of the Kootenai County Democratic Club why he thinks Andrus was a great leader.

Question: Do you agree with Chris Carlson that Gov. Butch Otter is looking through rose-colored glasses when he touts successes of his administration?

The Capitol Hill newspaper “Roll Call” reports today that Idaho Congressman Walt Minnick says he’s “gone for good” from elective politics. “I think I’m done with elective politics,” he told the newspaper.  “I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I think it’s time for somebody else.” The article examines the dismal elective record of Democrats in Idaho in the past three decades, and the Idaho party’s future prospects, perhaps with conservative, well-funded Democratic candidates like Minnick/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. More here.

• Related: Labrador picked for Resources, Government Reform committees
• Related: Minnick, Simpson split Idaho’s vote on tax deal
  

Question: Will Raul Labrador break the string of one-and-done representatives from the 1st Congressional District?