Yes We Can

Idaho GOP reshaped by tea party outrage

Joined by tea party members, Ron Paul disciples and old-guard conservatives, Beck strode into the three-day confab in Idaho Falls amid a swelling national tide of frustration with Washington, D.C., magnified by Idaho's already rightist tilt. When it was over, a majority of the 500 delegates had transformed their platform with a spasm of anti-fed outrage — and anger at Republicans who Beck thinks have strayed from the fold.

Over three days, they crafted a platform that urges Idaho to seize federal land, recommends ending popular elections of U.S. senators and sings the praises of gold and silver — an inflation hedge to U.S. Federal Reserve-issued greenbacks.

Even some hard-core tea party members from elsewhere were shocked at how far Idaho Republicans went.

"I don't want to say extreme, but let's just say you guys are more excited," said David Kirkham, a founder of Utah's tea party. In May, he joined Republicans to oust GOP U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett — for not being fiscally conservative enough.

Some see Idaho's convention, where delegates came just shy of backing an unregulated state militia, as evidence of a movement to reset the U.S. Constitution's clock. FULL STORY