"libertarian" Gov. Butch Otter Standing up to the Feds

From Eric Dondero:

Paying for products and services with gold and silver; dumping the federal income tax; State seizing federal lands, that's the agenda of the newly revamped and excited Idaho Republican Party. Some say that the Idaho GOP has adopted in a near full-sweep, the entire agenda of both the Constition Party and the Libertarian Party.

Idaho took the lead on the repeal of the Health Care Reform Act (ObamaCare). The Legislature is 3/4ths Republican. And now they're branching out in other areas to push back on federal control.

From Capitol Hill Blues, "Tea Party excess in Idaho" July 19:

To be sure, conservatives across America — many with tea party sympathies — are reshaping the 2010 political landscape amid anger over bank bailouts, health care reform, illegal immigration and federal deficits. In Maine, GOP delegates passed a “tea party platform” rejecting all United Nations treaties. Kentucky Republicans chose Rand Paul, progeny of libertarian hero and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, as their nominee for U.S. House.

But Idaho is the point of the spear.

After all, its state Legislature is already three-quarters Republican. In March, libertarian-leaning GOP Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter became the first state chief executive to sign a bill to sue the federal government over health care reform. It’s an anti-federal streak that survived from its 1970s “Sagebrush Rebellion” days, when the Rocky Mountain West’s residents arose to assert local control over swaths of federal land that dominate their region.

Photo of Idaho Governor Butch Otter.