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CHRIS CARLSON Carlson Chronicles |
Republican Senator Mike Crapo, and his political advisors, lost little time this past week in reading and reacting to First District Congressman Raul Labrador’s hiring of Idaho Statesman ace political reporter Dan Popkey as his press secretary.
Some pundits speculated the move indicated Labrador was contemplating a possible run for the United States Senate. The next Senate election is in two years with Senator Crapo presumably standing for re-election to a fourth term, but there has been additional speculation that Crapo might retire and stay in D.C. to earn some big bucks like his former Senate colleague, Dirk Kempthorne.
The message to Labrador was unequivocally clear: “If you think this is going to be an open seat you can just waltz into, you’re whistling past the graveyard.” The senior Idaho senator’s move is considered somewhat unusual in that his current colleague, Senator Jim Risch, is up for re-election this year. One’s colleague normally waits until the other’s race is finished before declaring his intentions.
Crapo wants there to be no doubt in anyone’s mind that he intends to serve a fourth term. His announcement specified unfinished work on addressing major national issues such as coming up with an acceptable formula for reducing the debt and federal spending with a plan that will put the nation’s fiscal house in order without itself becoming a catalyst for furthering economic doldrums.
Despite the Senator’s staunch conservative credentials, his willingness to include tax reform and even some possible “revenue-enhancers” as part of a solution package is one of the reasons Labrador may challenge the incumbent. Labrador of course has signed the Grover Norquist “no new taxes will I ever vote for” pledge, whereas Crapo, to his great credit, endorsed the Simpson/Bowles Commission approach to resolving the national debt crisis.
One presumes that Labrador can read the message. Whether it scares him off or not is another issue.
It does, however, draw additional attention to his hiring of Popkey. Normally, a congressional delegation in which all seats are filled by one party, would be expected to work in some degree of harmony.
Labrador’ hiring of Popkey, though, is going to cause both the congressman and his new press secretay some real problems for the simple reason that neither is going to be trusted. Harmony in the delegation will disappear and in particular Popkey is going to find out that the many mainstream Republicans from Idaho who have remained in D.C. are never going to include him on the inside. (more…)
