Boise Weekly looks at the GOP schism

Shea Andersen of Boise Weekly has an extensive cover story this week about the growing schism in the Idaho Republican Party, especially its fight over whether to close the GOP primary. Idaho Democratic Party executive director John Foster gets his licks in with this great quote (and several others):

The Bill Sali wing of the Republican Party in Idaho, is the Republican Party in Idaho right now. We're not going to be afraid to point that out over and over again.

Tell it, Brother John! As Foster says, the Idaho GOP has been hijacked by its extremists. It's also fallen prey to the sort of arrogance that's only possible when your party holds all the statewide offices, the entire congressional delegation, and about 80 percent of the legislature. The time of reckoning has already come in Boise - where voters have roundly rejected Republicanism in recent elections - and even in unlikely places like Idaho Falls, which elected its first Democrat to the state legislature in decades just last year. With its depiction of an increasingly riven and reactionary Republican Party, Andersen's article will give fresh hope to Idaho Democrats and independents beyond Boise, too.

Comments

[Rod Beck]

Talk about a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The Democrat party was hijacked years ago by ultra extremists from the left. (Feminists, radical extreme environmentalists and of course the backbone of the modern Democrat party is the ultra extreme obstructionists from the local and national education unions.

The whole purpose of the Democrat Leadership Council (DLC) is an attempt to moderate liberal Democrats. The President of the DLC is Idaho’s own Bruce Reed, son of former State Senator Mary Lou Reed. Former President Bill Clinton is a product of the DLC.

George Soros and his cronies are doing everything they can to keep the Democrat party in the hands of the extreme leftists. He funds such radical groups as Center for American Progress and of course MoveOn and many others.

You cite Shea Anderson’s article in the Boise weekly as evidence of a “growing schism” in the Idaho Republican Party and place as evidence our attempt to stop you liberal Democrats from participating in the selection of our Republican candidates.

You fail to point out that it was the Democrat party in California and again more recently in Mississippi that filed suit in a Federal Court to stop those darn pesky Republicans from voting in a Democrat Primary. If you use your logic you would also suggest the Democrat party in those states were, “hijacked by its extremists.”

Moreover, all we are trying to do with our lawsuit is simply to provide a mechanism to require people who vote in a Republican Primary election simply be registered as a Republican first. Imagine that. That is such a radical idea that a majority of other states do the same thing!

At least we aren’t requiring a loyalty oath before participating as you Idaho Democrats require prior to participating in your Presidential Selection Caucus. Or as Kevin Richert from the Idaho Statesman reports, “one must first sign a card declaring allegiance to the party.”

You must be the George Soros wing of the Democrat Party.