The Need for a Great Thinker

Liberal Idaho revels in a liberal Idaho newspaper bashing Bill Sali for not being a great thinker. They write in part:

As retiring state House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, a Republican, has said of Sali: “That idiot is just an absolute idiot.”

Sali’s reputation is as a zealous anti-abortion crusader with a craving for sowing chaos. Speaker Newcomb was moved to yank Sali from the chairmanship of a key House committee because of tumult he created. Judges have twice struck down parental consent laws that are Sali’s pet causes, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal settlement fees.

And then:

Instead, Grant’s years as a major international corporation executive would provide an exceptional skill in tackling economic elements of the U.S. trade crisis, benefit Idaho’s need for expanded economic development, plus help craft U.S. foreign policies with his knowledge of foreign governments.

I wrote the paper a letter to the editor which I hope they publish. If not, I’m publishing it here:

I’m glad that the Idaho Mountain Express is there to help tell us Republicans how to think. After all, we’re the ones who chose Bill Sali for Congress who the Mountain Express accuses of being a shallow thinker.

If one opposes the leadership of ones party, one is assumed not to be a deep thinker? A true thinker would apparently march behind whoever gave him a command and would ask how high when political leaders said jump. Yes, I see how Bill Sali’s decision to be independent and choose where he would stand on issues rather than marching in lock step shows that he’s not a great thinker.

But to this great evidence, the Express adds even more. For you see Bill Sali saw the need for parents to be involved in the abortion decision and introduced legislation which passed both houses (of an apparently unthinking legislature) and then was presented to liberal activist courts who overturned it. How could Sali not predict what America’s most unpredictable circuit judges might do?

We learn something new. As a member of Congress, Larry Grant would “help craft U.S. foreign policies with his knowledge of foreign governments.” Thus I learned from the Mountain Express that US Foreign Policy is not set by the President, but by freshman Congressmen from the opposition party.

If the Mountain Express wants to be taken seriously, it should make reasoned arguments that go beyond, “Conservatives are stupid” and show some actual grasp of reality. As for me, I prefer an independent voice in Congress rather than a media darling.

Idaho, Bill Sali

—–