Before the Idaho Tea-Partiers
I was curious to see how one of the most conservative of Blue Dog Democrats, Walt Minnick of Idaho, making an appearance before “Tea Party Boise” would play. A summary.:
There was lots of loud applause and some fairly lusty booing at some points, but whenever someone tried tried to speak out of turn (they drew random numbers, and only those people could come to the microphone and ask questions / make comments) the crowd shushed them quite effectively. (An example was when Walt was explaining how President Obama is President of the whole country, and someone yelled out “What about his birth certificate.”)
One “Birther”.
Lots of Tea Partiers had what I considered some radical ideas and some fuzzy thinking — one suggested that the whole concept of insurance was the cause of all the country’s ills, and that if there was no insurance people would be a lot more personally responsible. There was lots of cheering for the concept of putting people in jail who tried to use the emergency room and not pay, but they also complained about the high cost of incarcerating people and wanted frequent use of the death penalty. Combining the two, it seemed the only logical solution to their conundrum was to execute poor people who couldn’t afford to pay their hospital bills.
Of course. What would Ayn Rand Do?
I was beginning to get disappointed that I wasn’t going to see any fireworks when the meeting ended, and then it happened — the “Truthers” (“Israel did it” sub-division) showed up.
Some audience comments drew applause, whistles of appreciation, and a few catcalls about Communism and socialized medicine. Minnick received some boos for saying he supported the president, if not his health care plans. Minnick said he saw the need for some private-sector reforms that would ensure everyone has coverage.
In his opening remarks Walt emphasized how we must “pay for” any health care reform, drawing many approving hoots and much applause. Then he said, and this is a near quote: ” I’ve met with lots of groups, (and he named some clubs and political groups) and North End Democrats, and I think that group is more likely to produce a Fox News moment than this group.” Laughs and applause. Which kind of put me off, to be honest. […]
My favorite question was when the elderly “gentleman” complained that “this administration has too many czars and coming from Hungary he know about czars. After attending meeting felt as though I needed to get home quicky to shower. Don’t think that I have ever spent time in a room with people that were filled with so much hate and negative energy!
BUT BUT BUT … a Rebuttal to that:
On the issue of all the Obama Czars he said, there is no such position. The president can call his advisers any title he wants. (WHAT?? Wake up Walt all these Czars are going to make your job irrelevant if you don’t figure this out.)
This blogger than proceeds to refer to his blog in the third-person, and by initials, in calling him a one-termer due to his failure to impress him.
But, initial blog third person figure is right, and everbody knows it. I do not know what a Walt Minnick gained from deliberating with Bill Sali’s electorate — it is possible that his half – conciliatory straddling, finding that “middle way” that puts him 40 percent into his political party, and that allowed him to defeat a Bill Sali. He is that accidental congress-critter, much like Cao in Louisiana — in the Democrats’ whip game of “Catch and Release”, one of the last caught, and one of the first released.