Politics and Larry Craig

One of the problems of writing for a weekly paper is that no matter how hard you try, you’re almost always a week behind the times. For that reason I generally don’t have much to say about whatever shenanigans the politicians are up to today, but rather I growl a lot about the various situations they let develop, and of course the various political views that I consider downright dumb. Right now however, I think I can fit a current event in with my usual soapbox rant.

The great American political campaign season is upon us, whether we’re ready for it or not, and I fear a bit early as well. In our usual circus sideshow manner, the Republicans are happily slamming the Democrats, the Democrats are hurling insults with the best of ‘em, and the mainstream media is flaming everybody in sight. The religious right is calling down fire and brimstone on evildoers, the utopian left is screaming that everyone in the world is wrong except themselves, the Libertarians are shaking their fists at almost everybody, and the talk show hosts are happily sharpening their fangs in hopes of improving their network ratings.

When I started writing this column I wrote an “introductory” piece in which I claimed that “a few of my ‘pet peeves’ are hard core environuts, left wing bleeding heart liberal utopians, opinionated people, loud music, lawyers, and the bureaucracy.” For the most part I’ll stand with that list, but as happens every other year during political campaigns I’ll temporarily add “Political Candidates” as well. While I generally get along fairly well with most individuals, I do think that humanity as a group is probably the dumbest bunch of ignorant “sheeple” ever to come down the pike, and when it comes to politics P.T. Barnum was right, there’s a sucker born every minute. I learned a long time ago that in political campaigning it doesn’t matter what you actually think or believe, it’s that you tell this crowd, right here, right now, what they want to hear, and they’ll follow you anywhere.

It seems that we’ve got an entire herd of professional politicians running for president next year, all are busily telling us how great they are, how good their ideas are, how they’ve got so much political experience, how terrible their opponents are, etc. etc. ad nauseaum. But rather than telling us how they’d solve the problems facing the nation, they’re happily picking on the opposition and little else. The mud slinging in our national political campaigns is, in my view, utterly uncalled for, and also quite demeaning to everyone involved, slinger and slingee alike. We can all remember the accusations tossed at both candidates in our last presidential campaign, and unfortunately I’d expect to see more of the same next year. The fuss extends to congressional seats as well, witness the constant witch hunts and sometimes wild accusations in the mainstream media. The current commotion about Sen. Larry Craig’s problems are a good case in point, where, because he’s a Republican, the Democrats are thirsting for blood, and the left wing media will settle for nothing less than his head on a platter. Were he a democrat I’d expect the republicans to be out sharpening their skinning knives, and the media to be stumbling all over themselves in explaining that it’s “really nothing to be concerned about”. This constant warring between the radical right and the looney left does nothing more than keep everyone in a turmoil, confuse the issues, and is a great disservice to the American voter.

On a more local level, here in Idaho at least, there’s plenty of glowering, grumbling and growling of course, but fortunately we don’t usually see the massive character assassination efforts that seem to be the stock in trade elsewhere. At least I haven’t heard of one candidate calling another a horse thief lately. Personally I’d think that a simple “he’s got the job and I want it” along with “I think I can do the job better” statements would suffice. Heck, I know I could do a better job of running NASA than the current crop of bureaucrats and political appointees, but then I don’t really expect the President to offer me that position in the immediate future either.

In a recent news article, James Weatherby, a political science professor at Boise State University, reportedly said that “Idaho Republicans possess a fiercely independent streak, characterized by a healthy dose of libertarian values and distrust of the federal government and the media. They generally hold deep religious beliefs and conservative social values. It all makes it hard sometimes to predict exactly how Idahoans would vote or how Idaho politicians will act on certain issues”. I think that he could say much the same for most Idaho Democrats as well. ‘Course we’ve got our share of nuts from both sides, although thankfully not as many as the more populous states produce. I’ve lived in several states through the years, and managed to get myself involved with the fringes of the local political scene in both Arizona and Nevada. As an interested observer of the situation here in Idaho, I think I much prefer the way things are done here. In the Arizona I knew thirty years ago, a mob of democrats would be running the streets with tar and feathers right now, looking for Sen. Craig. In Nevada they’d have been measuring him for a neck-tie party based purely on unfounded rumor! So far at least, most Idahoans are keeping fairly quiet, and I hope waiting for the final results of whatever investigation comes of this. But please keep in mind that even after months of investigating a few unsubstantiated allegations, the Idaho Statesman has yet to find a “smoking gun”. If the allegations can be proven, then yes, Larry will have to go. But “innocent until proven guilty” is a cornerstone of our justice system, and nothing has been proven yet.

Personally I don’t know what happened. Thanks to the internet I’ve read the police reports, a number of raving news reports, a lot of vague political forecasts, and of course the inevitable rabid commentary from the looney left and the gay community. The police report seems rather ambiguous, and everything else seems to come from people with an axe to grind. At present the situation looks to me like a minor incident (and a bad mistake on Larry’s part) that’s being turned into a mountainous event in the name of political advantage. I do know that I’ve met and spoken with Larry Craig on several occasions, and in general he appears to be a sincere, straightforward individual who really is interested in solving problems facing Idaho and Idahoans. At least he’d listen to us, unlike a lot of other politicians I’ve known. And personally, I rather liked him. I also think that whatever the outcome of this sorry situation, the people of Idaho owe him a vote of thanks for past services rendered.

I will make one recommendation to travelers though. If you’ve got one of those portable music machines plugged into your ear, don’t, under any circumstances, tap your foot in time to the music. Lord only knows what kind of signals you might be sending, or to whom!