O-Sense
Sen. Mike Crapo has been around politics and Congress long enough to know that you can’t satisfy all the people all the time, and his wavering support of Donald Trump provides clear evidence.
Skip Brandt, a former state legislator from Kooskia, stepped down as Crapo’s Idaho County campaign chair almost immediately after Crapo pulled his endorsement for Trump earlier this month. Brandt says the Republican base hardly cares what Crapo says, or thinks, at this point – even though Crapo is back on the Trump bandwagon.
“The damage has been done,” Brandt said. “I truly thought Mike Crapo was a principled strong leader. Boy, was I wrong.”
By contrast, Congressman Mike Simpson has declared Trump unfit for the presidency and says he will not vote for either of the main presidential candidates. Simpson’s stand doesn’t sit well with Republicans either, but he’s clear with his convictions.
During this campaign, Crapo has gone full circle, from endorsing Trump … to pulling his endorsement of Trump after the “Access Hollywood” episode … to saying on Idaho Reports that he hasn’t decided how he would vote … and now, back to endorsing Trump.
A couple of weeks ago, I gave a nod to Crapo for putting his moral principles ahead of party politics. He has been one of the nation’s champions in the fight against domestic violence and sexual assault, and Trump’s views about women are an affront to that noble cause. I thought that when everything was done, Crapo at least could look himself in the mirror for pulling his endorsement of Trump.
Well, apparently, Crapo looked at himself in the mirror and the glass shattered. Or, he saw his evil twin saying, “Vote for Trump. Ease the pain.”
Crapo, so it seems, left little doubt where he stood with his party’s nominee. “Make no mistake – we need conservative leadership in the White House,” Crapo said in his initial statement. “I urge Donald Trump to step aside and allow the Republican Party to put forward a conservative candidate like Mike Pence, who can defeat Hillary Clinton.”
Of course, there was zero chance that Trump and his giant ego would leave the presidential race less than a month before the election. Now that Trump is still running, Crapo did what politicians so often do under pressure.
He buckled. Trump is now “the guy” to get the job done for Republicans.
In my conversation with Crapo, he sees no inconsistency with his thought pattern. “The choice I asked for (with Pence at the top of the ticket) did not develop,” Crapo says. “The choice comes down to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and I will support the Republican ticket.”
Crapo still takes offense to Trump’s statements about women. But on the policy end, Crapo says Trump would be far better than Clinton.
“What’s most significant, is the influence she would have in her ability to choose someone on the Supreme Court. It could change into an activist Supreme Court, which could change our Constitution as we know it and change America,” Crapo says. “In addition, I stand for limited government and free markets, and I have been fighting aggressively to control the explosion on our national debt, and the explosion of government we have seen in the last six to eight years. She not only would maintain the course of the last six to eight years, but would expand it into a larger and more intrusive federal government.”
Crapo could have saved himself from a lot of grief by making such a statement weeks ago, while denouncing Trump’s “locker room” talk. Gov. Butch Otter and Congressman Raul Labrador made comments to that effect, without blowback from Republicans.
The good news for Crapo is that all this will be over soon. It’s a good bet that he’ll win re-election to his Senate seat, and it might be an even better bet that Trump loses the presidential election – putting him on the Michael Dukakis path to political obscurity.
Six months from now – and especially if he becomes chairman of the Senate Banking Committee – only a few party wonks will remember, or care, that Crapo yanked his endorsement for a losing presidential candidate. Everyone else will be falling over themselves to remain on the senator’s good side.
Chuck Malloy, a long-time Idaho journalist, is a columnist with Idaho Politics Weekly and an editorial writer with the Idaho Press-Tribune.
