Huckleberries: Beware staking claim to mantle of nerdiness

Jeff Ward, a founder of the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans, views his Tea Party Lite group as an underdog. Never mind that Kootenai County is one of the most Republican counties in one of the most Republican states. On Thursday, reacting to the outcry over an insensitive anti-Obama “joke” told by Coeur d’Alene school trustee Brent Regan, Ward compared the Reagan Republicans to the underdog nerds in the “Revenge of the Nerds” movie. Ward said conservatives who speak out “are taking a lot of crap” from people who sit back and snipe. Quoth Ward: “The reality is it has nothing to do with something we’ve done bad or anything we’ve said bad. It has everything to do with the fact that they don’t like us participating. They don’t like the nerds on campus. Because what’s happened in the last four years in this community is the powers that be have found that the nerds have started … electing people to office.” However, a Huckleberries blog commenter shot a hole in Ward’s nerd theory. Tongue firmly cheeked, “Joker” said: “In the movie, the nerds were really smart but social outcasts. They use their brains to secretly videotape a sorority house of beautiful and decidedly naked women. Then the nerds stay up all night watching them. I thought Idaho frowned on secretly videotaping people.” P’haps a better analogy is in order?

Defending Regan

True to form, GOP activist Mary Souza defended Regan’s joke (comparing President Barack Obama to assault weapons as “black and scary”) in a post from her OpenCdA.com blog. She blamed the hubbub on the media. Quoth Mary: “Brent relayed a personal story about a comment his wife made, which he deemed to be humorous, and the (Coeur d’Alene) Press went all out to make look racist. He is not. But the Union (Coeur d’Alene Education Association) wants to paint everyone on the current conservative School Board as being radical, racist, hicks-from-the-sticks.” Seems Souza didn’t get the memo that Regan humbly admitted he was wrong for retelling the insensitive joke – twice.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: The rain will splash/the snow will fall/and thick black clouds/cast winter’s pall;/but then one day/a pleasant shock/it’s staying light/’til five o’clock” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Over the Hump”) … This might be of interest to the GOP legislators who are trying to resurrect a modified version of voter-rejected education “reform.” In a Huckleberries blog poll, 82 percent opposed their attempt to do so … Nic Casey, of Coeur d’Alene, reports his 8-year-old son, Christian, offers a simple formula for peace in Israel and the Middle East: “I believe that everyone should have the right to live anywhere.” Out of the mouths of babes.

Parting shot

Time is still ticking on that demand by the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations for trustee Regan to apologize to every student and parent in the district for his anti-Obama “joke.” Regan has apologized twice for his lapse in judgment – in a Coeur d’Alene Press article and at the Regan Republicans luncheon Thursday. But nothing official. It’ll be interesting to see if he does so at the board meeting Monday. Time is also ticking on the request made by human rights advocate Norm Gissel to board members of the Coeur d’Alene School Board. The Coeur d’Alene attorney who helped bankrupt the Aryan Nations has asked that each trustee state his or her position on Regan’s comments. Tick-tock, tick-tock.