Achilles heel -- Raul Labrador:  My call is that Raul's years of service in the Legislature will be singled down to one thing: attendance. We're seeing that now. (As if former-Legislator Mark Snodgrass REALLY cares about Raul's absences...). Big news. Yawn....Legislators are gone all the time. Since someone used his name, they ought to check the late Jerry Thorne's absence record...and the names of those who he asked to serve in his place.

Achilles heel -- Vaughn Ward: I believe his Achilles Heel may be a public investigation of his personal finances. Something tells me that his ability to run a full year for US Congress, without pay, is too odd an occurrence for a relatively young man, whose net worth and financial holdings have not had time to mature...unless I missed something in his FEC Reports. I could be wrong/Dennis Mansfield. More here.

• Constitutionalist Pankey joins GOP/Adam Graham, Adam's Blog
• Mansfield: Political prophet?/Idaho Conservative Blogger
• Looking under the Tea Party hood/Fort Boise
• Researcher compares elk cousins to study climate change/Rocky Barker
• Several Treasure Valley legislative candidates withdraw/Kevin Richert, Statesman
• 3-fer: Daily Politics Brief, and: Thursday morning news, and: You call it Gyro, I call it Schwarma/Treasured Valley

Question: Izzit just me, or do you also think the state GOP power structure is trying to anoint Vaughn Ward as its congressional candidate, as it has done in the past for elections involving Butch Otter, Jim Risch, and Dirk Kempthorne?