Idaho Politics

There's a Republican challenging Bill Sali for Congress next year--and it has already generated a storm of upset.

NAMPA -- An Iraq War veteran plans to run for Idaho's 1st District Congress seat as a Republican, meaning U.S. Representative Bill Sali likely will face a rival in the May 2008 primary.

Matt Salisbury, a 34-year-old Nampa resident, described himself as a "Lincoln Republican" who believes politicians should stay "out of your bedroom and out of your social mores."

Idaho Chooses Life, which is an Idaho pro-life group, wasn't too happy about this:

A press release reported by Boise’s KTVB late last week says that Nampa resident Matt Salisbury will challenge Congressman Bill Sali in next year’s GOP Primary.

We don’t know this gentlemen, but the press release describes him as a decorated veteran of the Airborne Rangers. He has also seen active duty in Iraq with the National Guard. Before saying anything else about his campaign – let us give thanks for his bravery and service to nation.

Mr. Salisbury’s honorable battlefield experience does not, however, qualify him as a candidate for Congress.

It is obvious from his opening statement that he is committed to defending abortion rights in this country. This is perhaps his primary reason for running. He goes so far as to say that “government should stay out of our bedrooms”. That suggests he may also be a defender of gay rights and other social aberrations – but we’ll have to see what else he has to say.

We are most troubled, however, by his claim to be a “Lincoln Republican”. Someone must rise to defend the late President’s honor from modern social radicals who would cloak their agendas in his legitimizing mantle. (The gay rights crowd has long maligned Abraham Lincoln’s memory by organizing themselves as the “Log Cabin Republicans” – for reasons totally beyond a coherent retelling here).

There is absolutely nothing in the public record to support the notion that President Lincoln, were he alive today, would be a champion of abortion rights. If anything, his articulation of the proper and moral role of government qualify him for title as “First Pro-Life President of the Republic”.

Many of us in the Pro-Life Movement read his speeches and courageous indictment of slavery as succor in our struggle against the destruction of God’s Little Ones. In the face of great opposition, Lincoln eventually molded the Civil War into a great moral struggle against evil; he led a bloody defense of the dignity of each human being.

Mr. Salisbury is entitled to his views on abortion – which views disqualify him for public office. But we hope that he quickly ends his campaign to malign the memory of Mr. Lincoln.

Okay, it didn't take long before I saw an upset email from Mr. Salisbury's wife concerned about Bill Sali misrepresenting her husband. I won't reproduce the letter (since I don't know whether it was intended for publication), but my first reaction was that if Mr. Salisbury is pro-life, using an expression like that was a rather odd way of saying so. I asked for clarification from Mrs. Salisbury--and the response that I received left me unable to figure out what Mr. Salisbury's position is on abortion--but it does not appear to be supportive of any sort of a ban.

I also haven't been able to get a clear answer if the "government out of the bedroom" remark means that Mr. Salisbury opposes sodomy laws as a matter of public policy (a legitimate position, I think) or as a matter of Constitutional right (clearly historically wrong). I can't tell if I am seeing muddled thinking, muddled writing, or an attempt at straddling the pro-life and pro-choice camps. (This is rather like trying to straddle a bull and a whale simultaneously--it takes remarkable legs).

UPDATE: Idaho Values Alliance directory Bryan Fischer reports that Salisbury says he is being misquoted:

He insisted in an email to me yesterday that his quote was taken out of context, and accused the press of essentially twisting his words in its quest for a story. In a preliminary conservation Mr. Salisbury and I had this morning, he indicated that his remarks regarding "social mores" and "social engineering" were actually directed toward liberals who seek to use the law to impose their politically correct views of such things as the homosexual lifestyle, child-raising and education on the rest of society.

If so, this is a good sign for Mr. Salisbury. But it is a reminder of the importance of good press release writing.

Many years ago, I was active in Libertarian Party politics in Southern California. (I was younger, more idealistic, and less aware of history.) One of our candidates for state legislature had the mildly embarrassing situation of being arrested and convicted of drug dealing in the middle of the election campaign. He served his sentence--and went on to get the highest vote percentage of any LP candidate that year. (Admittedly, it was one of the few races where the LP candidate only had one major party opponent.)

I had a chance to see the press release that this candidate sent out about something that would ordinarily be considered a campaign faux pas--spending time in federal prison during the campaign. It went on for many pages--and the newspapers, being generally hostile to libertarian ideas, picked the worst parts of it for their news story (since the journalists couldn't be bothered with actually going out and interviewing anyone), and left out the parts that presented him in a positive light. (He was apparently selected for a "one step from entrapment" prosecution because he refused to provide Qualludes to a neighbor, who was planning to use them to get a 15 year old girl in the mood for sex. The neighbor was a federal informant.)

I still look forward to hearing from Mr. Salisbury about his positions.