Spoken to by the speaker

Republican Infighting Never Pretty

By Shea Andersen, 4-07-06

The waning days of any long legislative session tend to wear on the nerves.

So you could consider the dust-up between two Idaho Republicans, House Speaker Bruce Newcomb and Rep. Bill Sali, as little more than frazzled tempers.

Yesterday Newcomb briefly booted Sali, a combative religious conservative, from two committees, after Sali challenged a floor decision by Newcomb. You can read about the brickbatting (and its denouement here) at the Spokesman Review blog Eye on Boise, ably managed by Betsy Russell and Meghan Cuniff.

So: worn nerves? Apparently it goes a little further than that. Idaho Statesman columnist Dan Popkey pulls back the curtain a little bit to assert that despite being the leading candidate for Congress, Sali is a bit of a pariah in his own party (to borrow Popkey's phrase).

This is just the sort of thing that makes Democrats giddy, but it's worth noting that such dustups among Republicans are notable primarily because they are the party in power. In fact, Democrats might wish that Popkey hadn't written his column on this; a Sali victory in Idaho's May primary would have been a blessing to Larry Grant, the Democrat hoping to win the November election.

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