It's the Who Loves Ya Effect. Simpson has the love.

Face it, the Statesman is partially to blame for the rise of Bill Sali; ditto for Bowers, Thayn, Moyle, et al. They wouldn't even have a chance if you guys took some intellectual & journalistic responsibility (not to mention---had some cohones).

to others Statesman. Sali "got drilled" but Simpson "got a pass". Now Kev, you say you love this blogging thing but if you're going to make assertions like that, you need to embed a source behind those words. If by that you mean Minnick was able to respond using one of his many staff members then nobody would be surprised. But you don't make your case other than to show that Ms. Holmes is underfunded and DCCC isn't promoting her race as a pickup opportunity. Isn't that the story here rather than saying that Simpson can't be touched? For a guy that voted lockstep with the most unfavorable president in the history of polling, Simpson certainly isn't teflon.

here I took a great deal of negative comments about Bill Sali. He was then, he still is an idiot. He would be fine if he kept his mouth shut, stayed away from the mic and kept his required filings up to date. Which as of late he hasn't done. People in Idaho, well I must say if this is the best we have to send to Washington we may as well remove ourselves from the union.

The American people pay their taxes so why would they buy into politics? How about this? Our representative's pay, health care, & retirement can come from campaign contributions instead of our tax $. That should help come up with money for roads. Their retirement alone might pay for roads. Why raise vehicle registration fees when all we have to do is shift the pay from our representatives to contributors?

If an American taxpayer can't afford to contribute to the campaign of a politician or every politician in the country because the money flows accross state lines, why should that taxpayer have to pay the wages, health care, & retirement the same taxpayer is losing more of everyday?

Let the people & corporations who buy our representation into office pay them. Just because a politician makes all kinds of campaign promises & is elected, doesn't mean he's going to keep the promises made or could have if he wanted to. Obama is going to bring the troops home from Iraq by whatever the date? Home is suddenly Afghanistan?

It looks like all is well in Iraq, getting better everyday. By design? The surge worked? That's the trouble with terrorism, they can come back to a country like Iraq, any time they want. I have to suspect that is why they're strring it up in Afghanistan. They had their fun, nothing more to gain, take it to Afghanistan where they have been building up. If we would have stuck to that plan instead of going to Iraq, which was not under terrorist attacks before we sent out invitations, we'd have Afghanistan under control. Terrorist are doing a bang up job of letting US believe what we want about success & we're going for it at how many billion a day?

With our economy the mess it is, oil & gas prices killing US in America, I have to believe terorrist are high fives, dancing with the goat. I can hear bin Laden telling the followers, look at the American people suffer. They can't afford all the luxuries they're use to wasting money on because they are spending their money on oil they buy from terrorist & war we keep America in, making it perpetual. We'll destroy America, break them like we did Russia. The approval ratings their Congress & President get tell the story.

Where do all those weapons come from? When Russia was fighting Afghanistan, who was selling weapons to the Taliban? There's our politicians, a self proclaimed war president, & great plan for vistory? What has Iraq cost US & what will Iraq be like in five years? Will we be back? Could have accomplished the same thing in the Gulf War but no, ten years later we go back under the WMD, terrorist, & nukes, intel which never materialized. Terrorist played US against Russia & are playing Russia against US. Superpowers are taking a beating in supporting terror & don't know how or why.

Vietnam & communism all over again? Terroist learned from Vietnam how to win a war against any superpower because we always back one side agaisnt the other with weapons & money & terrorist play both sides. Just like the two party system in America, republicans & democrats breaking Americans. Everybody keeps contributing to the failure not realizing how or why it's falling apart. It's all working the way it's suppose to? Do we send the best or the one with the most money?

I see Freddie & Fannie in the news again today. Wonder why? Lessons not learned from oh, say, 78? Just like the eighties, millions of people will lose, we'll all pay, & we'll never hear the truth.

I'm not sure exactly what Kevin Richert is implying with his post. That Democrats don't take enough shots against Simpson?

I thought it was THE MEDIA that was supposed to keep tabs on these votes and, through news columns, keep the readers abreast of crucial votes; and through editorial columns, apply criticism and praise where the editorial board feels it is due.

I agree with Kevin and the Idaho Statesman's editorial page on probably 75 percent of their opinions. But of all the various types of media, the newspaper editorial page has the biggest "can of teflon spray" of all. They're the ones who choose where and when to apply it. In this instance, the best quote I can think of at the moment is: "Physician, heal thyself."

It's really pretty simple. Mike Simpson isn't a radical numbskull. Sali is. When you propose a bill to do away with gravity, or whatever it was he was trying to do, people begin to wonder about you, as they should.