Idaho Politics: Words That Come Back To Bite You

The current national story about Idaho politics is the continuing Senate tenure of Sen. Larry Craig (he of the Wide Stance). As you may remember, he said at the beginning of last month that he intended to resign from the Senate by September 30th; it turns out, he meant pretty much the same thing we do when we say we intend to mow the lawn at halftime when our wives go out shopping -- it was a way to get rid of the pressure for a short period.

While many people are calling on Craig to honor his "commitment" to resign, I'm pulling for him to stay in the Senate as long as possible. Let's face it -- anyone Gov. Otter appoints will probably vote the same way that Sen. Craig would have, and will be in about the same position to influence policy (given his lack of seniority). What Sen. Craig provides that a Sen. Risch couldn't is much needed humor -- and let's face it, that's something in short supply in politics nowadays. (Note that I expect him to resign at the end of the week after the Minnesota judge officially laughs at his request to vacate his guilty plea -- but I can still dream.)

To me, the more interesting statement made recently came from Bryan Fischer, the state's unofficial nag when it comes to morality. Discussing the possibility of a Giuliani nomination for President, he basically threatens not to support the Republican ticket if that happens. Some of the things he says are the type of thing that it will be hard to back away from if Rudy is nominated:

Many will argue that pro-family conservatives should vote for Giuliani just to keep Sen. Clinton from occupying the highest office in the land.
But the issue comes down to this: how much value do we place on the life of a baby in the womb? If we truly believe that abortion is the killing of an innocent human being, it is difficult to imagine we could find a way to support a candidate who wants to protect that gruesome practice.
Imagine for the moment that you are living in Germany in the early 1940s, and there is a candidate who wants your vote. You like everything about this candidate, every position he takes, except for one thing: he is determined to protect the practice of gassing Jews.
There is simply no way a citizen with a functioning human conscience could permit himself to vote for such a candidate, no matter how appealing he might be on other matters.

While there's absolutely no chance that anything Fischer does will result in Idaho's electoral votes going to anyone but the Republican nominee in 2008, it'll be interesting to see if he sticks to his guns if Giuliani gets nominated. My guess is he won't -- and since his web site doesn't allow comments, he'll forget he ever said anything.