Republican Civil War Devastates One Party Politics In Red, Red Idaho-- Bad News For Labrador

Earlier today we poked around a little in the silliness around the House Republicans quest for an Eric Cantor replacement, a very key job in their obstructionist m.o. We thought the absurdity of Idaho libertarian Raúl Labrador would be the best palate cleanser after Cantor… but not one with even the vaguest of chances to beat the Kevin McCarthy wind-up doll. And whatever chance he may have had-- say one in ten thousand-- was further reduced as reports are an eruption of full scale civil war in Moscow leaked out today. Moscow, Idaho-- the site of this year's Idaho Republican Party convention.

Let's be clear, the last time a Democrat got elected to a federal office in the blood red state-- which elected just 13 Democrats out of 70 in the state House and gave Obama just 33% of its vote in 2012-- it was Blue Dog Walt Minnick in 2008, a former Nixonite who became a "Democrat" in 1996 and who was so far to the right that he almost never voted with Democrats on anything other than naming post offices. He was handily defeated (41.3% of the vote) by Labrador in 2010, after one pathetic term, which did help him get another job he was better suited for-- as a lobbyist for one of Washington's sleaziest firms, the Majority Group. Minnick was the only Democrat to ever receive a perfect score from the Club for Growth and the only congressional Democrat endorsed by the Tea Party, having voted against the Affordable Care Act, against Obama's Stimulus bill and against the clean energy act.

Labrador isn't an improvement, but he has been more interesting, not being part of the corrupt corporate Establishment that has rotted out the core of both Beltway-centric political parties. And he's very popular back hime-- or at least he was until yesterday, when he chaired the state convention.

Idaho’s state Republican Party convention degenerated into a fiasco Saturday after attempts to disqualify up to a third of the delegates attending appeared to be succeeding – and the convention ended up adjourning without electing a chairman, setting a platform or doing any of it scheduled business.

“For three weeks I’ve tried to broker a deal to prevent what happened today,” 1st District Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador told Idaho Public Television just after the convention adjourned, but he failed; Labrador was the convention chairman.

“It’s hard to blame all this on Raul Labrador, but on the other hand, this does not strengthen his credentials for a national leadership position, either,” said BSU professor emeritus Jim Weatherby, a longtime observer of Idaho politics.

Far from uniting the deeply divided party, the gathering in Moscow degenerated into dysfunction-- though it’s the party that holds every statewide office in Idaho, every seat in the congressional delegation and more than 80 percent of the seats in the state Legislature. It also proved not to be the finest hour for Labrador, whom many looked to as the healer for the fractured party just a day after he announced that he’s running for Majority Leader of the U.S. House; instead, he ended the convention facing jeers and walkouts from his own party members.

Weatherby said the only comparable event he could think of was Nevada’s GOP convention fiasco in 2008, which was canceled before delegates to the national convention had been selected. “And again, Ron Paul forces or libertarian forces were involved in that fiasco as well,” Weatherby said.

Libertarian and tea party forces had lost badly in most parts of the state in the May 20 Idaho GOP primary-- though they were ascendant in North Idaho-- but geared up to keep control of the party anyway at the state convention.

“There’s always been disagreement on platforms and things like that, but to go to the level they went to this time to disqualify people,” Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, said wonderingly as he hit the road home after the convention Saturday. “People that have been around a long time don’t remember anything like this. … One person files a complaint, keeps 102 people from voting for no real grounds.”

The state Senate assistant majority leader said, “It was basically the ultra-, ultra-conservative, tea party libertarian type people basically flexing their muscle in the way the thing was organized.”

State Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, made the motion to adjourn at 3 p.m. on Saturday; a challenge to the move failed, as many delegates walked out.

Melissa Davlin, an Idaho Public Television reporter who was in Moscow covering the event, said, “Both sides were just so fed up-- they were done.” She noted, “They had been through hours of parliamentary procedures and confusion over rules and all of these things, and they still weren’t getting anywhere.”

“I heard people on both sides say that this is the last time they’re going to come to a state convention,” Davlin said.

The failure of the convention means a full day of laboring Friday over resolutions, rules and platform planks was for naught. Committees had recommended resolutions to repeal Idaho’s state health insurance exchange, encourage Bible study in public schools and oppose Common Core state standards for student achievement, among others.

The platform committee had agreed on one major change in the party platform: Doing away with its current clause calling for repeal of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which requires direct election of U.S. senators. Repealing the amendment would return that choice to state legislatures, instead of voters.

State Rep. Brandon Hixon, R-Caldwell, who made the motion in the committee to remove the plank, said, “Idahoans want their voices to be heard. … I can’t imagine taking the voting power away from all 1.6 million people in Idaho and giving it to just 105 people in the Idaho Legislature to elect our United States senators.”

However, that plank will now stay in the state GOP platform for the next two years.

Who better to preside over the Republican descent into this kind of chaos and vitriol on a national basis than someone who already has in his own red hellhole of a state? Labrador for Republican Leader! Or Mayor of Moscow.