There are a couple ways to look at Rep. Raul Labrador’s “rescue” of a bunch of Nampa students who thought they were going to miss out on a tour of Washington D.C. last week when they were in town. The government had been shut down for 24 hours and, yes, Labrador, R-Idaho, stepped in and took the kids on a whirlwind three-hour tour of the Capitol, the Library of Congress and filing by to shake hands with Speaker of the House John Boehner. Those amazing experiences would otherwise have been off limits due to the shutdown. Labrador even took them to lunch. The other way to look at this is that Labrador and a number of his House Republican colleagues bear some responsibility for the shutdown because they cling to a stance on the passed-into-law Affordable Care Act (the ACA should be defunded, delayed or repealed). That position was rejected by the Senate and President Barack Obama. No matter which partisan perspective you choose, it is THE issue that shut the government down/Robert Ehlert, Hello Idaho. More here.

Question: Are Congressman Raul Labrador & his band of dug-in House Republicans heroes or goats?