Risch: Idahoans not ready for socialism

News of former gubernatorial candidate Paulette Jordan entering the U.S. Senate race on Friday didn’t draw much of a reaction from the man she hopes to replace.

“There’s four people running in the Democrat primary,” Risch said in a phone interview with The Press. “They all bring the Democratic Party’s liberal, socialist agenda to the party. They need to sort out which one of those is going to run against me and we’ll deal with it.”

Risch said the four have a lot in common — but not the best interests of Idaho.

“Any one of the four are going to bring that left wing approach to the party,” he said. “I have no question the people of Idaho aren’t ready to take up the direction of California.”

The 76-year-old who has served in the Senate since 2009 said voters will have a choice.

“They know me,” said Risch, a former Idaho legislator, lieutenant governor and governor. “I’ve been around a long time and deliver a consistent conservative approach to government. I’m sure we’ll have some robust debate.”

Risch also weighed in on the just-concluded impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Asked his assessment of fellow GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah after he alone broke party ranks and voted to convict Trump, Risch said:

“Mitt Romney’s a friend of mine. President Trump’s a friend of mine. I’ve learned over my life that when you have a couple of friends that do have issues between them, they need to resolve that themselves. I have the highest respect for Mitt. I think he made a mistake. I think he was wrong. But look, I have no doubt that he was convinced that was the vote he should make and that’s his choice.”

Risch took umbrage with critics who claim he and the other Republican senators did not remain impartial in the impeachment deliberations.

“People always talk about impartiality when they talk about us who voted to acquit the president, but interestingly enough, they never say anything about the other side, that locked up together and voted the other way,” he said.

Instead, Risch said the nation’s Founding Fathers well understood that impeachment proceedings would be a political process, not a jury trial. He noted that the Founding Fathers were determined not to make the leader of the United States easily fallible to overthrow, which is what they saw with the prime minister position in Great Britain.

“They gave us something very different: Three branches of government, which they wanted to be separate and equal,” Risch said. “Most importantly, they required a two-thirds vote. That two-thirds vote was genius of the Founding Fathers to say, ‘Look, if we’re going to get rid of a president, it’s got to be pretty bad.’”

The senator did concede the possibility that impeachment could become a political weapon of future House majorities when the president represents a different party.

“That’s a legitimate concern,” he said. “They’re going to impeach him not because they want to get rid of him. They’re going to know that they’re not going to get the two-thirds vote, but as a political tool … to create enough question that he’ll get beat in the next election.”

In retrospect, he said, the impeachment proceedings were an American test — and the nation passed.

“As messy as it was, I come away with the sense that the Republic is alive and well,” Risch said. “Benjamin Franklin was asked, ‘What kind of government do we have?’ He said, ‘Ma’am, it’s a republic if you can keep it.’

“My response is, ‘Ben, if you’re listening, we’re going to keep it.’ The good news is it worked. It was messy … but it worked.”