RAUL LABRADOR
Labrador recognizes a reckless scheme
Rep. Raul Labrador is brave! He has done his homework on the fiasco “Fast and Furious.” In spite of Attorney General Eric Holder ridiculing him as a Johnny-come-lately from nowhere Idaho, Raul calls for Holder’s resignation for incompetence.
A lesser congressman would have turned tail like a berated schoolboy — but not Labrador. He lives by conviction that saw through Fast and Furious as a reckless scheme by administrative gun-hating zealots, seeking to impugn constitutional liberty.
By design, these zealots saw opportunity to free-flow thousands of guns across our southern border to drug lords, and then broadcast to the nation that loopholes in our gun laws are responsible for Mexico’s state of violence — enter massive new gun restrictions.
The scheme resulted in the death of a border patrolman. Then BATFE agents in Arizona spoke out against the Fast and Furious program.
The whole thing stinks of a sub rosa cabal, but smells worse at the feet of Holder.
NORMAN FOLKEE, Council
PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS
GOP could hurt itself in primaries
Team Obama has once again snookered the Republicans. By proposing that religious-affiliated organizations must pay for free birth control, the administration has energized the zealots on the religious right. This has had the desired effect of advancing the candidacy of hardliner Rick Santorum.
The Obama campaign would clearly prefer to run against a right-wing nut like Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich, candidates so hotheaded they can be spun up the way John McCain was spun up by Karl Rove and George W. Bush in 2000.
The biggest threat to President Obama’s re-election is Mitt Romney, a sane, reasonable moderate whose Massachusetts health care plan was the model for “Obamacare.” Former Gov. Romney’s past support for women’s reproductive rights and gay rights will make him more acceptable to independents than Santorum can ever hope to be.
But conservatives have a habit of shooting their chances in primaries, and Democrats can only hope they do it again by failing to nominate Mitt Romney, the Republicans’ best and only hope in 2012.
GARY BENNETT, Emmett
TV PREACHERS
Do aging evangelistshave money to retire?
Oftentimes when I’m channel surfing I drop in on the religious channels for a look-see. It amazes me that every time I do there’s a fast-talking preacher with one common theme: Send me your money. Lots of it, I beg you. They are not always asking for pocket change, they want thousands, tens of thousands and they get it too, from those who can least afford it. Some will offer you everything from trinkets to dehydrated food, all of which can be yours for a “love gift” of however much money they think they can get. Why a love gift? Because it cannot be taxed.
OK, understood, but what happens when the less than successful preachers reach retirement age? Where do they go? They’ve paid no taxes or Social Security. In fact, they were parasitical. Are they still entitled? Do they have a safety net? If so, who pays for that? If not, what happens to them? Just thought I’d ask.
DON L. LAYNE, Cascade
