Posted on 04/17/2014 11:58:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
GOP presidential hopefuls are largely steering clear of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s fight with the federal government.
The showdown, which left armed militia members and feds staring each other down last week, has captivated talk radio and cable news shows, turning Bundy into a conservative cause célèbre.
Yet Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate, are the only big-name Republicans to have spoken out on the dispute so far. Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been silent, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) have also not commented on Bundy, who has been fighting the federal government in and out of court for more than 20 years over his refusal to pay cattle grazing fees.
All three offices did not respond to calls for this story.
GOP strategists suggested that Bundy’s case is too risky for most candidates eyeing the presidency, particularly given the possibility of armed conflict with federal police.
“The Republican Party’s very sympathetic to Cliven Bundy’s property rights, states’ rights argument,” said strategist Ford O’Connell, who worked on John McCain’s 2008 campaign. “But many Republicans also prize the rule of law above all else. Right or wrong, Bundy had his day in court and lost.”
Matt Mackowiak, who has worked on various Capitol Hill campaigns and as a congressional press secretary, agreed that candidates have good reason to be cautious in the Bundy dispute.
“If you don’t know the person, and you haven’t followed the situation closely, all you do is you look at the situation and see risk,” Mackowiak, who contributes to The Hill's Pundits Blog, said.
Still, Bundy’s arguments and the battle on his ranch feed into a strain of the GOP worried about what it sees as a growing incursion
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
It’s my impression that Mr. Bundy’s hands are not perfectly clean in this, which is unfortunate.
Where did you get that impression?
!
Everything is politics with the crowd in Washington.Situations like this show us the meek and weak.
From what I've read online. Am I wrong?
I thought he hadn't paid normal fees going way back. Not true?
I’ve noted people have stayed away from discussing it including Rush.
Did you know Ed Schultz accused Sean Hannity of helping cause trouble? That was on the Mike Gallagher show this morning. Hannity certainly has been covering this story.
I know a lot of people don’t understand the situation clearly and that is why maybe they are not commeting.
The story keeps changing, from “grazing fees” to “protecting” the desert tortoise (which the BLM has been euthanizing due to high numbers according to them). I always assume the feds are not telling the truth.
“If the guy in Nevada had renamed it “Benghazi Ranch,” he wouldn’t have seen anybody from our government for months.”
- Bryan Fischer, April 14.
https://twitter.com/BryanJFischer
That’s a good one.
It takes courage to be a politician - a real politician. That is, to do what is right and “lead and work with others” to a satisfactory conclusion. Unfortunately, most of what we have are “grabbers” masquerading as politicians. Not all are quite in the same camp has Harry Reid, but too many lean in that direction. Perhaps we can elect some “real” politicians next time.
Oh, so do I. But that's an assumption, not a guarantee.
If he's not squeaky clean, the MSM will use that to clobber him and make him out the bad guy who deserves what he gets.
I'm not saying that's right, it's just the way it is.
Maybe that's why the more Conservative DC politicians are wary.
I'd be surprised if they aren't checking into it at the level of staffers, though.
If he’s not squeaky clean, the MSM would have found something on him already.
Remember that this region has a history of the BLM running people off their ranches, for various trumped-up “reasons”.
That's what this is really about.
Why is that Lib Huckabee still around? He’s so 1990s.
excerpt from 2013 article
Desert tortoise faces threat from its own refuge as BLM closes Vegas rescue center
By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, August 25, 3:56 PM
LAS VEGAS — For decades, the vulnerable desert tortoise has led a sheltered existence.
Developers have taken pains to keep the animal safe. It’s been protected from meddlesome hikers by the threat of prison time. And wildlife officials have set the species up on a sprawling conservation reserve outside Las Vegas.
But the pampered desert dweller now faces a threat from the very people who have nurtured it.
Federal funds are running out at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center and officials plan to close the site and euthanize hundreds of the tortoises they’ve been caring for since the animals were added to the endangered species list in 1990.
The Bureau of Land Management has paid for the holding and research facility with fees imposed on developers who disturb tortoise habitat on public land. As the housing boom swept through southern Nevada in the 2000s, the tortoise budget swelled. But when the recession hit, the housing market contracted, and the bureau and its local government partners began struggling to meet the center’s $1 million annual budget.
Housing never fully recovered, and the federal mitigation fee that developers pay has brought in just $290,000 during the past 11 months.
They better not steer clear. Bundy Ranch is going to bring Reid down once all the leads are followed. I am on to a bunch of hot stuff. Reid’s consigliere Jay Brown and Utah bribe allegations can become radioactive. I’ve updated the following page.
http://www.futurnamics.com/reid_brown.php
Legally, Bundy doesn’t have a leg to stand on, courts have said so for 20 years. But neither did James Meredith when he defied the Mississippi law that said only white students could attend the University of Mississippi.
Bad laws exist, as to bad regulations and injustices perpetuated by unelected bureaucrats who operate under the power of federal law.
I’ve read just about everything that’s been published on this case, and in my view it is an act of civil disobedience in protest of an unjust regulation that would not be merely an inconvenience, but would run Mr. Bundy out of the ranching business, and effectively end a way of life that has been a tradition in the American west for over 100 years.
And I don’t want to see this country become the kind of place where that can happen.
Fight?... Fight??...
GOP runs the other way. What a pack of wimps.
When Ted Cruz speaks up, they all shout him down... “Shut UP, Ted!!! You’re gonna get us killed!”
Useless parasites.
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