Local boy mourns days past of fewer moneybags

Bruce Reed, the local boy who served as a White House adviser for President Bill Clinton, tries regularly to explain conservative Idaho to his liberal Slate online readers. In “The Has-Been” column last week, he said that ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani “came out to Idaho a few days before Larry Craig did.” (Badabump) Scott and Mary Lou’s son continued: “If Giuliani is a national hero, somebody forgot to tell the folks back home. His ticker tape parade consisted of a dozen people holding signs endorsing Ron Paul for president.” Reed noted that Giuliani is the first prez wannabe to visit CdA since Ronald Reagan, adding: “My hometown used to mimic ‘Twin Peaks,’ not Sun Valley. Now so many rich people summer there, candidates come from Manhattan to meet our millionaires.” To get to his fundraiser at John Magnuson’s ritzy lakeside home, Giuliani had to drive past the Paul Bunyan restaurant, “the only place in America you can get a huckleberry shake underneath a giant statue of the folk legend,” Reed said. Probably, Giuliani was more impressed by Duane Hagadone’s floating green and “mammoth bloc of $5 million vacation condos” nearby, “which will draw more millionaires the way huckleberries attract grizzlies.” Of CdA, Reed concludes: “It’s a nice place to live, and a shame so many rich folks have to visit.” Alas.

•”Tap Three Times,” Doug Clark’s musical parody of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s airport bathroom troubles, is a toilet flush away from 100,000 YouTube views. As of 4 p.m. Friday, “Tap Three Times” (sung to the tune of Tony Orlando & Dawn’s, “Knock Three Times”) had 98,830 views.

•Library Foundation Director Ruth Pratt will be my Huckleberries Gone Wireless interview this week. You can follow the interview live online, beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday.