I worked with your mother for a few years in the early 90s, I don’t know if I ever mentioned that to you. She was a dang sharp woman, and I rarely see her around anymore…I hope she is doing well.

Kempthorne’s like that, and he has a close relationship with Hall. Hall was instrumental in wrestling the power of the Dept. of Education away from the elected Director and handing it to the Governor-appointed Board, and was rewarded with a long term of Board President. So who knows?

As to the exposure thing… right now, the Repubs are desperately seeking unknowns who haven’t shot themselves in the foot. Dirk is positioned pretty well when you think about it in that light, and the Repubs tend to favor Westerners these days. In addition, Idaho is seen as reliably Republican, more so than even Arizona. Certainly, Kempthorne is a smarter campaigner than Sarah Palin, and knows more about how the world turns.

…and as far as the Ball/Vandersloot relationship goes-
Alan Ball, Roger Ball and Vandersloot are related by marriage. Frank married their sister. Roger started Melaleuca, and hired his bro-in-law Frank to run it. They had a big falling out, and Roger no longer has interests in Melaleuca, but he’s still half owner of the pharmaceutical co. that makes the products, which is the real Golden Goose.

If i was to guess who had the most money, my bet is Roger. He’s an innate businessman who loves to wheel and deal. He doesn’t display his tailfeathers like Roger, but I’m pretty sure his are bigger.

And all 3 aren’t the richest or most powerful folks in town. I know a couple of others who are most probably more wealthy. It’s just a thing here that the really wealthy don’t show off all that much, and prefer to spread their wealth out among their families. In a pinch, the families all hang together tightly.

However, lurking in the police records, is testimony from another woman who used Hall as her divorce attorney. Once she was divorced, he gave her back his fee, and they had a brief fling. I don’t know if this amounts to legal misconduct, but if it does, this could bring him before the State Bar.

Hall is smart. Now that he’s had his hubris all blown apart, he will emerge all the smarter. Especially if he gets some counseling.

Well before this all broke, Hall had resigned most of his appointments, and after the sentencing, he resigned his national party chair, so he’s pretty well out of the big-time arena now, by his own choice.

I really expect he’ll quietly sink into his legal practice after he does the time and disappear, at least for a fairly long time to come. At 58, he still has plenty of time ahead to re-build his associations, and I tend to think he would rather be a non-presence until the Repubs either fall apart or get their act together. Then, he may re-emerge, especially if Kempthorne has a shot at anything…. he’s Dirk’s boy, all the way.

Whatever ends up happening to Blake, I do wonder about that “surrogate son” who took “credit” for the used condoms. EEEWWW. Why was he not charged with something?

But I don’t see him as unable to recover from this, just not so easily in Eastern Idaho. It seems he’d do better to either move to Boise or Washington, DC. I hope he gets help, where ever he goes.

Blake Hall will not go away, if he bothers to check his behaviour he will come back without much tarnish. After all he didn’t do a kid, and he’s still buds with Kempthorne etal.