Lincoln Day celebrates local officials

Mountain Home Republicans gathered last Thursday at the American Legion Hall to celebrate the successes and future of the party and to honor local officials during the annual GOP Lincoln Day Luncheon.

Led by Congressman Butch Otter, who is running for governor, the event featured a lengthy list of local, state and national GOP elected officials from Idaho, including Otter's likely primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Jim Risch.

Second District Congressman Mike Simpson, Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa, state controller Keith Johnson and Treasurer Ron Crane, also were among the many state and local dignitaries present.

Local officials, even the Democrats, were recognized during the luncheon that filled the Legion Hall. This year's theme of the luncheon was "Honoring Our Public Servants."

The keynote speaker for the event, First Congressional District representative Butch Otter, saluted the local units of government, noting that those governments closest to the people were the most responsive to the people.

Quoting Thomas Jefferson in stressing the importance of the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, Otter added, "we recognized that local government is where the greatest responsibility arises," and said he had spent his career seeking to return responsibility to states, counties and cities. "That government closest to the people is best."

He asked that the crowd honor those 235 Gunfighters deployed overseas, and the 1700 members of the Idaho National Guard serving in Iraq, "who are defending what we do at all levels of government," and who are fighting for "the same liberty and freedom" in Iraq that the founding fathers battled for 229 years ago.

Those who signed the Declaration of Independence pledged "their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Some lost their lives, almost all lost their fortunes, but they never lost their sacred honor," he said.

They created a system of government, he said, "that recognized the individual, not a king or potentate, is supreme." Elected officials, he said "are the servants of the people, and the people are the masters."

Risch, who actually opened the speeches, noted that as part of his job as lieutenant governor he becomes the governor when Gov. Kempthorne leaves the state. "I really, really enjoy that," he said, and while not officially announcing his own candidacy for governor, made it clear he fully intended to do so in the future.

"It's great to be a Republican" he told the crowd of party faithful. The Democrats, he said, "still haven't figured out what they did wrong in the last election" for president, and have selected "a real screaming liberal" as its new party chairman.

"Idaho," he said, "is what America was, and can lead the way back to what it should be.

"If we follow our instincts of what is is right and wrong, we'll stay strong," he said.

Ben Ysursa, who succeeded Pete Cennarusa who served as secretary of state for Idaho for 26 years, joked that "there is no truth to the rumor that a constitutional amendment is being proposed that you would have to be Basque to be secretary of state in Idaho."

In his brief remarks he noted that, "as a Catholic, I gave up long and boring speeches for Lent," but, noted, "unfortunately, the people I travel with (on the Lincoln Day circuit around the state) aren't Catholic."

He quoted Henry Clay in noting that "government is a trust, and its officers are trustees who work for the people. That's what the GOP works for."

State representative Pete Nielsen also was among the speakers at the banquet. Noting that he served on the state education, health and welfare, and judiciary committees, he said his job was to "educate, medicate and incarcerate 'em."

Congressman Mike Simpson praised the state's congressional delegation, saying "I think we have one of the best delegations in the United States. They are thoughtful individuals who care about the nation and Idaho.

"Butch," he said, "is one of the most thoughtful members of the House (of Representatives) and I'm looking forward to working with Butch for the next year, and then I understand he has other plans."

Simpson also announced that the military construction budget before Congress includes nearly $40 million for new housing at Mountain Home AFB, and added that "we'll make sure MHAFB has the premier training range in the Air Force and that it stays that way."