Pot calling kettle blue may work
Kevin Richert, opinion editor of the Idaho Statesman, and conservative blogger Adam Graham/Give Me Liberty responded to the attack by Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, on Rep. Raul Labrador’s candidacy for Congress. As you may recall, Jorgenson announced in a press release Monday that Labrador shouldn’t run, targeting his fellow legislator’s role as an immigration attorney. Labrador responded that Jorgenson isn’t well liked. (Insert “neener, neener” here.) Now comes Richert: “I think Jorgenson overplayed his hand a bit. Labeling a foe a liberal is never a bad ploy in a GOP primary, but considering Labrador’s legislative record, it’s a stretch.” Blogger Graham chided Jorgenson for attempting to deputize himself as the “purity police” in this situation, noting that Jorgenson’s conservative voting record is a modest 71 percent. Observes Graham: “I’ll take Rod Beck over Mike Jorgenson as a standard for conservatism any day.” However, Richert and veteran Idaho political observer Randy Stapilus agree that Jorgenson may have succeeded in exposing Labrador’s unpopular immigration work to red-meat Idaho R’s.
Parts is parts
Cindy Hval, the Voices columnist who subs as Huckleberries Online blogmistress when I’m on vacation, had a close encounter with high school sex education this month. As Cindy tells it: “When my 15-year-old son slumped home from school yesterday, I asked him how his day had been. He said, ‘It sucked. I had to stare at a picture of a penis for like, an hour in health class. That’s just wrong!’ ” Cindy was flabbergasted. But that wasn’t all. Junior brightened as he announced: “Tomorrow we’re gonna look at girl parts!” Sighed Cindy: “Oh dear.” Indeed.
Huckleberries
Poet’s Corner: “By midway on the/route he’d chosen/his nether regions/all had frozen” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“A December Stroll”) … Scanner Traffic (from 2:38 p.m. Monday): “Two drunken men are having a dispute with a local motel manager who won’t let them remove a poached elk from the premises. They are banging on his door” (as well as the door of the cross-bar hotel) … Poll: 96 percent of the respondents to a Huckleberries Online poll last week said that Pearl Harbor Day is important to them … Earlier this month, Mary Souza of OpenCDA.com urged readers – both of them – to donate to Jim Brannon’s court challenge to the Nov. 3 Coeur d’Alene City Council elections by clicking on jimbrannon.com. But this message popped up when I tried to download the site: “The account has been suspended – Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.” P’haps a Freudian slip re: how the court test will turn out? … The smell of gas was so strong at Twin Lakes Elementary Tuesday that Santa, who was visiting for photo-ops with the kids, wasn’t allowed to change back into his street clothes before being evacuated. So shutterbug Taryn Hecker tells Huckleberries.
Parting shot
Dennis Mansfield, ex-director of the Idaho Family Forum, predicts that close friend Bill Sali will run for Congress again. Mansfield shook the Idaho blogosphere when he predicted Sali would toss his hat in the growing ring. Quoth: “I know that Bill has a high calling of honor in his life and he sees his service in Congress as time that was providentially directed. Both ‘in’ and ‘out’ … And it’s my belief that he’ll be sensitive to that ‘call’ again for another ‘in’ opportunity. And May 2010 will be his. Whether Nov 2010 is his, will be yet to be seen.” Mansfield concludes by saying that Demo Walt Minnick “has served Idahoans like no other Democratic incumbent since Gov. Cecil Andrus.” Stay tuned.