As senator, Clint Didier says, he plans to 'pick a fight'

EVERETT -- Clint Didier, his forehead beading with sweat, scans the sun-baked crowd at Henry M. Jackson Park.

It's midafternoon, the temperature's climbing toward 90 degrees and this Republican candidate for U.S. Senate is about to crank up the heat even more.

"Are we going to stay on the same course of self-destruction?" he said. "Or are we going to turn this thing around, we the people, shoulder-to-shoulder, fighting our way back to the light, to the truth, to the Constitution and to the lord God, almighty?"

This is Didier uncut, a first-time candidate trying to muscle his way out of the Aug. 17 primary and into a fall run-off against, in all likelihood, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

He's a 51-year-old farmer from the tiny Eastern Washington town of Eltopia dressed this past weekend in a white long-sleeved shirt, dark jeans and cowboy boots.

He stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 250 pounds, nearly 100 pounds more than when he graduated from high school, and wears one of the three Super Bowl rings earned while catching passes in the NFL for the Washington Redskins and Green Bay Packers.

A favorite of tea party and patriot movements, he's won over many conservative Republicans with impassioned speeches on the need to fight the "tyranny that's going on in our country" that he says is pushing the nation toward socialism.

"I do believe 2010 is the turning point for America," he said. "We value our freedom, and we are not going to let it succumb to a socialist nation. Not on our watch, we're not; we're fighters."

He gets one of his loudest reactions when he tells how railroad workers dubbed his hometown "Hell to Pay" because they had to hike through it in 117-degree temperatures to pick up their paychecks.

"When I get to D.C., there is going to be no reaching across the aisle shaking hands and making friends. I'm going back to pick a fight," he said. "There is going to be hell to pay and I'm taking the heat back with me."

The Constitution is his "game plan." He wants the federal government stripped of agencies not created with the birth of this country, starting with the departments of education and energy.

He wants military forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan and troops stationed on the U.S.-Mexican border to halt an "invasion" of illegal immigrants and terrorists into this country. He wants taxes slashed and regulations removed.

He'd pursue oil development offshore, vote against Elena Kagan for the U.S. Supreme Court and end the use of earmarks. He'd repeal the new laws on national health care and the new regulations on financial institutions, as well as the Patriot Act, which he said violates civil liberties of Americans.

Amid the litany of positions he takes are a few contradictions.

While he bemoans the federal government's encroachment into Americans' personal lives, he's a big fan of Arizona's new law dealing with immigrants and thinks police should be able to request proof of citizenship of those they stop for questioning.

And he opposes federal subsidies for farmers though he's been receiving them for a few years. He's received $273,000 worth of the subsidies and federal funds since 1995. He says he will no longer accept them.

Didier's immediate fight is not in Washington, D.C. It is the primary, where he must best the better-known and better-financed Republican candidate Dino Rossi.

He must capture the bulk of conservative votes to have any chance and hopes endorsements from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, are a boost.

Rossi can't cede all those votes. On Thursday he announced backing from several recognized conservative groups and U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., one of the Senate's most right-leaning members.

On the campaign trail, Didier is not shy about criticizing his fellow Republican. He describes Rossi as the hand-picked choice of Republican Party leaders whom he blames for getting the GOP tossed from power in Congress by not doing more to shrink the size and reach of the federal government.

Don't expect much change in the future if Rossi replaces Murray, Didier told the Everett crowd.

"The only difference between Dino and Patty in this race is the speed with which they will get us to bigger government and spend our grandchildren's money," he said.

Didier realizes some voters might consider his comments too brash.

"Quite frankly, the only way we're going to save this republic is to be bold and aggressive" like our Founding Fathers, he said. "They sure gave us individual liberty and all we have (done) is deprived the American people of it since the existence of this country."

Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.