Mark Schmitt has some interesting information on Larry Craig’s appointed successor, Jim Risch. When Hurricane Katrina hit, Risch was serving as the interim governor of Idaho. He had this to say:
“Here in Idaho, we couldn’t understand how people [in Louisiana] could sit around on the kerbs waiting for the federal government to come and do something. 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. That’s the culture here. Not waiting for the federal government to bring you drinking water. In Idaho there would have been entrepreneurs selling the drinking water.”
Of course, as Schmitt notes, the Idahoans did nothing of the sort. The federal government cleaned up their mess.
We need to help Larry LaRocco defeat this guy. The last thing we need is another entrenched wingnut senator.
unfortunately it’s an entrenched wingnut state. that’s why the republicans were so willing to push craig out, but won’t do the same thing for vitter (a state with a D for a gov)
on the other hand, yesterday morning i spoke to someone who grew up in idaho and she was optimistic about the dems taking craig’s senate seat. but “optimistic” for a liberal in idaho means we got something like a 15% chance.
We’ve been doing better in Idaho recently, but it will be a longshot. Money will help and its gotta be a cheap state as far as advertising goes.