Rex Rammell: Joking About Hunting Obama Has Been Good For My Campaign

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Republican Rex Rammell said Tuesday the hoopla over his remarks about hunting President Barack Obama has been a boon to his campaign, and he again refused to apologize for what he called a joke.

"This country needs to lighten up," the GOP gubernatorial candidate said during a press conference in a Boise park Tuesday.

Last week, a GOP rally attendee shouted a question about "Obama tags" during discussion of Idaho's upcoming wolf hunt, where hunters must purchase an $11.50 tag as a license to kill a wolf.

Rammell responded, "The Obama tags? We'd buy some of those."

Idaho's Republican governor and congressional leaders criticized Rammell for his response.

But Rammell said the publicity has been good for his run for office.

"Hopefully, if there's people in Idaho that didn't know me, then they'll know me now. I think I'll come out of this much better off," Rammell told the Rexburg Standard Journal in eastern Idaho, where he lives.

Rammell, a long-shot GOP candidate who as an independent garnered just 5.4 percent of the vote in his 2008 U.S. Senate run, said the condemnation had less to do with his statement and more to do with politics.

"These GOP leaders have jumped all over it to try to ruin my run to be the governor," Rammell said at his Tuesday press conference.

Rammell, a veterinarian and former elk rancher, has said he also blames Democrats and the media for overblowing his comment.

While a defiant Rammell refused to apologize, he said he was sorry if his remark was taken the wrong way.

"If people think I want to assassinate President Obama, I'll apologize for that all day long. That is not my intention," Rammell said. "But I will not apologize for making an innocent comment."

Rammell isn't the first Rexburg resident who has drawn attention for making an anti-Obama comment. In November 2008, second- and third-grade students on a school bus there chanted "Assassinate Obama" after his election, prompting the mayor of the eastern Idaho town to publicly apologize.

Comments

[givesflack]

08:22 AM on 09/03/2009

Are you kidding me! One second so I catch my breath: a reference about hunting a
democratic president is acceptable while anytime the whass-ssole gwb idio-t in
office the last 8 yrs was parading around in mission accomplished pajamas got
away with NO threats because we would all, most of the country, end up in
Guantanimo if we even thought the thought. So thats now par for the
m*****f***** course. OK where's my brothers who fought to
to make this a great and fine country who fought for the constitution, that's when
guns were legitimate and legal? This is about keeping America America and not in the
hands of private industry which really does kill our America every Republican chance it can.
God almighty , God almighty yes we can deliver America from the doom of our
most distrustful and unvalorous most uncivil fellow countrymen because they are
the most untrusted version of modern human being there ever existed in modern
human being existence. F*** M* (we need something to rectify our country in so
many ways)

[desertdweller]

04:08 PM on 09/02/2009

http://packham.n4m.org/garment.jpg

[clarryr]

11:22 AM on 09/02/2009

Being in Idaho I know that for the most part he is being condemned for his remarks. The incident may good for his exposure but it is not good for his campaign. He has proven himself to be unsuited for office.

[BrotherOrchid]

11:20 AM on 09/02/2009

His "white hood" is a bagde of honor to some. . . . .

[lvdragonlady]

11:16 AM on 09/02/2009

If this headline is true, it just goes to show how ignorant some people are and how gullible.

[progressivegreg]

11:00 AM on 09/02/2009

Does this clown have a talk show on one of those racists shortwave radio stations that all seem to broadcast out of Idaho?

[satanlite]

11:00 AM on 09/02/2009

LOL that's what trolls say when they're being pounded silly!

[RedneckDem]

10:51 AM on 09/02/2009

I wonder how Rammell would react if a pedophile posted on a social networking site that he was hunting Rammell's children? Sorry to stoop so low, but both should be cause for an immediate investigation.

[michiganms]

08:38 AM on 09/02/2009

Just think how good wearing a white hood would be for his campaign.

[MissusJones]

08:37 AM on 09/02/2009

It shouldn't just be Idaho's Republican governor and congressional leaders who take a stand against this guy. The GOP needs to step up and put an end to this bigotry. It is dangerous.

[mapmaker515]

08:20 AM on 09/02/2009

Now we don't need to listen to Bin Laden tapes a couple of times a year,he has outsourced his hatred of America to the Republicans!!!!!. Genuis.

[Darcman]

07:03 AM on 09/02/2009

This is just the begging boys and girls! This is typical GOP tactics, they couldn't stop Obama from getting elected so now they are actively advocating his murder! Fomenting hatred and violence is what the right always turns to when they can't get what they want at the ballot box! They don't have the political support to overturn Roe v. Wade so the next best thing is to kill abortion providers and scare people away from that profession! Effectively making it nearly impossible to get one is huge swaths of this country! They could not stop FDR from passing social security in the 1930's so someone takes a shot at the then President! Obama has come closer than anyone in 40 yrs to real health reform so what does the right do? They start showing up at his events with guns and calling for his death and the death of other Dems!

[Darcman]

06:59 AM on 09/02/2009

This is just the begging boys and girls! This is typical GOP tactics, they couldn't stop Obama from getting elected so now they are actively advocating his murder! Fomenting hatred and violence is what the right always turns to when they can't get what they want at the ballot box! They don't have the political support to overturn Roe v. Wade so the next best thing is to kill abortion providers and scare people away from that profession! They could stop FDR in the 30's so someone took a shot at the then President! Obama comes closer than anyone in 40 yrs to real health reform so what do the right do? They start showing up at his events with guns and calling for his death and the death of other Dems!

[Darcman]

06:41 AM on 09/02/2009

This guys a Mormon! What else do u need to know?

[desertdweller]

04:07 PM on 09/02/2009

http://packham.n4m.org/garment.jpg

[Tommygun264]

06:15 AM on 09/02/2009

It's time to stop being polite here - it's time to call these haters out for what they are. These people want physical harm to come to President Obama, but they don't have the guts to come out and say it directly, so they are stirring up the far-right lunatic fringe with code words, framing every issue as a life-or-death, get-them-before-they-get-you situation in hopes that one of their nut case followers will do their dirty work for them. These are the same people who went ballistic when Reverend Wright merely said "the chickens have come home to roost". Can you imagine the uproar if Wright had said the things these pubs are saying? People who did nothing more than wear tee shirts with the name "Bush" inside a red circle with a red diagonal line over it to Bush political rallies were arrested, placed in cuffs and interrogated by the Secret Service. It's time to start holding these lunatics accountable for their actions. We do have a right to freedom of speech, but that right comes with taking responsibility for the consequences of your speech. If law enforcement doesn't start reigning in this madness it is going to result in violence and bloodshed. You can't make jokes about hijackings or bombs in an airport, so why should you be allowed to make jokes about hunting the President down like an animal?

[satanlite]

11:02 AM on 09/02/2009

Time for politeness to end is the theme of my site.

http://www.badrepublicans.com

They made me. Now they can have both barrels in return.