Huckleberries: Kootenai County GOP too extreme for committeeman

First, you need to know that retired Army National Guard Maj. Andrew Whipple served his country in Iraq during the dicey period from November 2004 until December 2005.

The Kootenai High (Harrison, Idaho) educator doesn’t give up easily. But he finally had enough with the extreme politics of the Kootenai County (Tea) Republican Central Committee last week. Andrew resigned his elected committeeman position from Precinct 70. At his first meeting three years ago, he learned that other precinct committee persons considered moderate Republicans, not Democrats, to be their “enemy.” He felt marginalized after controlling Teapublicans learned he was a public school teacher.

“I’m an original Reagan Republican,” Whipple told Huckleberries. “I’m very conservative. I love guns. But that wasn’t good enough.”

In an email announcing his resignation, Maj. Whipple told Chairman Neil Oliver of the Central Committee: “Many of you think of public schools as the devil and hell bent on promoting liberalism and all sorts of evils. I really believe that many of the Republicans are brainwashed in North Idaho and controlled by puppet strings at the hands of just a few individuals. I plead for you to think for yourselves.”

If it has no room for a patriotic war veteran, like Maj. Whipple, the Kootenai County GOP offers a tiny – and goofy – tent, indeed.

Is the end near?

If you can’t find words to describe what the smoke from this Mother of All Wildfire Seasons is like, you should read the superb column by Mark Morford of the San Francisco Chronicle. Morford, who describes himself on the Chronicle site as a yoga teacher and “lover of trees,” visits Sandpoint often.

On Monday, in “Everything is on fire, and no one cares,” he described our pungent skies to his Bay Area fans: “This year, my summer visit to Idaho was swallowed, most days, in a thick, gauzy haze. It was as though the sky was overlaid with a bleakest of Instagram filters; the smoke was often so dense, it blocked the blue light spectrum entirely, washing everything in a pale, flat yellow, a creepy, apocalyptic tint that contrasted well with the redness in your eyes and the gray dryness of your throat.” Elsewhere, he wrote that “the smoke was so thick it turned the sky a pallid urine color.”

Yep, he’s been here.

Huckleberries

You know you’re in North Idaho, Toto, when one of the Kootenai County sheriff’s candidates (Tina Kunishige) offers a drawing at the county fair – for a Ruger 10-22 take-down rifle. (Now there’s something that can shoot an eye out – and much more.) … Tweetable: Gary Crooks of the S-R Editorial Board had the perfect sponsor for that wild market fluctuation Wednesday: “This stock market ride is brought to you by Timber Terror!” … Sightem: A white sedan with a full-sized Confederate flag attached to the bumper parked in a handicapped spot at the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office Wednesday. … In a High Country News article last week, reporter Krista Langlois named “Five Western waterways worse than the orange Animas.” Lake Coeur d’Alene and Montana’s Clark Fork made the list. (Read: Yeah, Lake Coeur d’Alene is viewtiful. But don’t drink the water) … Quotable Quote: “We can’t exactly drive a patrol car up there” – Coeur d’Alene police Chief Lee White told Huckleberries last week re: difficulty in patrolling Tubbs Hill on the Coeur d’Alene waterfront.

Parting shot

Hayden Meadows Elementary may be a hangout for the few Democrats remaining in North Idaho. At 8:48 a.m. Thursday, an officer reported over the police scanner that he’d spotted some “loose donkeys” and planned to help the owner escort them back home. To Washington state?