So says Politico, and they are probably right. Seven term congressman Mike Simpson from Idaho's 2nd district is about as GOP establiishment as you can get. A powerful member of the Appropriations Committee and long time friend of Speaker John Boehner, Simpson is the sort of congressman the Tea Party likes to hate. He is being seriously challenged by Bryan Smith, an attorney who was handpicked by the Club for Growth to take on Simpson. Smith is branding the eight-term Simpson as a dusty creature of Washington who has turned wobbly on the spending issues that are near and dear to the conservative cause. Simpson, meanwhile, is stressing that he is, in fact, a conservative while making the case that his experience and seniority are, in fact, plusses. "Idaho's 2nd Congressional District is turning into a proxy war for the middle-right of the Republican Party and the right-right of the Republican Party," said Phil Hardy, an Idaho Republican operative and a political analyst in...(Read Full Post)