Sali talks about GOP unity but ignores his own advice

06/18/2006 — It wasn't easy for U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson to bury the hatchet Saturday and warmly endorse state Rep. Bill Sali to join him in Congress. But Simpson's graceful gesture toward his former foe was the signature moment of the Idaho GOP convention.

Sali had a golden opportunity to reciprocate. He blew it.

Simpson stole the show by calling Sali and his wife to the podium for a grasped-hands-in-the-air photo op.

Rather than join the unity fest engineered by the elegant GOP chairman, Kirk Sullivan, Sali, R-Kuna, snubbed those who embraced him. Less than an hour after Simpson's good deed, Sali voted to mark with a scarlet letter any Republican who differs with a word in the party platform.

GOP National Committeeman Blake Hall led opposition to Sali's push to require the party to publish names of quibbling candidates. The proposal would have required candidates to affirm allegiance for every word in the platform or, alternatively, specify any disagreements.

"My friends," said Hall, "we do not need a litmus test on any single issue. What we need to do is stand as Republicans with a large tent to elect fellow Republicans."

Hall added, "You're telling someone if you disagree with me on one item, you're no longer my 90 percent friend, you're my 10 percent enemy."

Ada County Chairman Tom Cushman tried to stop the proposal in the Platform Committee, calling the idea "party suicide." But Sali, carrying the fight for the measure's author, Rod Beck of Boise, persevered and the panel backed the litmus test.

It was a different story on the convention floor, where delegates killed the idea, 178-105.

Afterward, Sullivan theatrically kissed Hall on both cheeks, telling him, "I couldn't have won without you. That was a vote for unity."

Backed by social conservatives, Sali got 26 percent of the vote in the GOP primary. Now, he must rally moderates to beat Democrat Larry Grant. So Simpson swallowed hard to shore up a man he once threatened to throw from a third-floor window when Sali called him a liar.

"There's gonna be some stories told," Simpson told the rapt crowd. "All the years I served with Bill Sali we disagreed on process sometimes, but I've never questioned the man's integrity."

Then, Simpson said, "Bill, are you out there? Would you and your wife Terry come up here?" After embracing the couple, Simpson said, "You've heard some talk about 'Republicans for Grant.' There is no such thing as a Republican for Grant. They are Democrats!"

Simpson then asked delegates to "work as hard as you can with every fiber in your body" for Sali.

Yet Simpson's class act didn't prompt Sali to respond in kind. Instead, he showed the intolerance that made him a pariah during his 16 years in the Idaho House and prompted House Speaker Bruce Newcomb to recently call him an "absolute idiot." Asked why he didn't support the unity amendment to strip the litmus test from the platform, Sali told me, "This is the first time I've ever heard it called the 'unity amendment.' I was just honoring the committee system."

Then Sali went back to lunch in the farthest corner of the convention hall. His dining partner was Bryan Fischer, the former pastor who caused the convention's other dissonant moment by condemning Sullivan for inviting Massachusetts GOP Gov. Mitt Romney to the convention. Fischer said Romney "has staked out some fairly radical positions on abortion and homosexual rights."

Romney, a Mormon, opposes abortion, same-sex marriage and civil unions. His sins are that in his 2002 campaign he backed domestic partnerships "in a way that includes the potential for health benefits and rights of survivorship" and said women, not government, should make choices about abortion.

For Fischer and Sali, purity comes first.

Simpson however, is a grown-up. He stuffed enmity not because he has had a change of heart about Sali, but for his own good, and for the good of the party.

Besides, House GOP Leader John Boehner of Ohio would chew Simpson a new one if he let old differences jeopardize control of Congress.

Privately, Republicans were livid about Sali's support of the litmus test and aggrieved that he didn't show he's matured now that he's the nominee.

"He needs to grow up — and fast," one lawmaker told me.

In his speech to the convention, Sali said, "We've got to lock arms together like never before. From the most conservative to the more moderate, every Republican must make the decision to work with every other Republican to get the job done. The strength of our platform will not be enough this time. We must be unified."

It's time Bill Sali heed his own advice.