Spring Break
Senate down to image vs. substance
PHIL BODE
Arbiter Journalist
Issue date: 11/3/08 Section: Opinion
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There are two prominent candidates in the race: Larry LaRocco and Jim Risch.
The race between LaRocco and Risch is pitting two different ideologies, not so much on the political spectrum, but rather how much credit the candidates give to Idaho voters.
LaRocco directly addresses Risch’s record of tax reliefs for the corporate rich while denying a raise in minimum wage, his elephantine support of Bush and his desire to privatize social security.
“Would anyone want to have had their [Social Security] money in the stock market these past three weeks?” Jean McNeil, communication director for the Larry LaRocco campaign, asked. “[Risch has] also taken big money from the oil industry and Wall Street.”
Risch’s mudslinging avoids key arguments, instead accusing LaRocco of trying to bankrupt Idaho residents by making corporations accountable for tax benefits. Risch also condemns LaRocco of being “too liberal for Idaho” (whatever that means).
“Risch’s positions aren’t moderate, they’re ultra conservative – and they continue Risch’s long record of catering to special interests,” McNeil said. “That history was never more apparent than when, as acting governor, he shifted the tax burden from large landholders and out-of-state property owners and put it on working Idahoans in the form of higher sales taxes on food and most everything else we buy.”
At the end of his attack ads, Risch displays a picture of LaRocco with Obama in the background. Risch never addresses what makes Obama too liberal for Idaho voters either.
Certainly Risch should know Obama is not nearly the most liberal in his party (Kucinich). So what is it that makes supporting Obama such a transgressive act according to Risch? Is Risch relying on the state’s proud history of tolerance and awareness to do whatever it takes to make sure a W.A.S.P. gets in the White House? Is he using race as a ploy?
It wouldn’t really be a major surprise to learn this about Risch. He’s on record as having bigoted views already, such as opposing women’s rights, the rights for LGBT to even exist and being in cahoots with homophobic darling Frank Vandersloot. Bigotry is bigotry, Jim, even if you try to cloak it under religious “morality.”
Of course, Risch fiercely opposes affirmative action and voters need only consider his comments about the victims of Hurricane Katrina, to whom he basically contributes slothfulness as the reason for their plight.
“Here in Idaho, we couldn’t understand how people could sit around on the curbs waiting for the federal government to come and do something,” Risch told The Guardian, a British newspaper, in 2006. “We had a dam break in 1976, but we didn’t whine about it. We got out our backhoes and we rebuilt the roads and replanted the fields and got on with our lives.”
Unfortunately for you Jim, facts reveal that the Feds did provide the money and service-people to rebuild the dam.
It’s sad a major contender for the Senate is reducing his campaign to the same old contrived strategies of the past: avoiding the issues, but presenting this external image of the big-tough-guy-with-swinging-Elephantiasis-balls style Republican. After all, nothing says badass like supporting the rich elite, corrupt corporations and religious zealots.
If this is what makes a politician right for Idaho, what does that say about the state?
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 3
Britton J. Holdaway
posted 11/03/08 @ 7:52 AM MST
So does the author of this article work for the LaRocco campaign?
TC
posted 11/03/08 @ 11:25 AM MST
Nope... I don't see him on the staff contact list.
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