Big Sky Cairn

I commented before that seventh-string candidate Jim Hunt, sacrificial lamb for the Montana Democrat Party, was going to have some trouble raising money once the low-hanging fruit was harvested. And, I was right. Rehberg outraised Hunt 2-1 last quarter - in a political environment that hasn’t been favoring Republican fundraising.

After a poor showing in Montana, it looks like Hunt is taking a page out of Baucus’ play book and looking for out-of-state money. A desperate plea at Daily Kos - the notoriously liberal site that once celebrated American deaths in Iraq - will give you some idea of the type of people Hunt is trying to convince he has a chance - ’cause Montana just ain’t buying it.

Seriously, props to Jay Stevens for the national attention. It must be exhilarating to get that kind of recognition. I mean, to have Howard Dean - Mr. Montana himself - recognize the hard work of being a lefty blogger along with 49 other official state blogs (sucks to be in states 51-57 I guess) has got to be exciting. I’m sure Dean is a regular reader - you can tell from the way his statement doesn’t seem scripted at all. I wonder if it was the 49th or the 50th one he did that day.

I mean getting a shout out of national significance - from an important place like Washington, DC, the home of Senator Max Baucus, Mr. BMW himself, is a remarkable accomplishment, so well done.

Of course, to share in your celebration we’ll all forget that we know that national Democrat Leaders will say anything to dupe Montanans into supporting them.

I guess we’ll just have to settle for the insignificant opinions of actual Montanans like Congressman Denny Rehberg and Gubernatorial Candidate Roy Brown. Ooooh the sour grapes taste awful!

YEEEAAHH!!!

Jack had a good find today.

This story could have been this, or this

But this is what we have;

The March event sponsored by L-3 executives raised $12,750 for Sen. Baucus’ re-election effort. The funds came from 14 top employees of L-3, according to federal election records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Most contributions were for $1,000, including from Ralph D’Ambrosio, chief financial officer, Charles J. Schafer, president of the company’s products group, and Curtis Brunson, senior vice president.

According to the reports, L-3 is involved in some offshore tax haven deals, which is an issue pending before Senate Finance since at least last spring. Max’s vigilance on the issue apparently did not extend to checking into who was hosting his fundraiser on March 17.

While he had no problem taking money from these folks less than two months ago, apparently something caused a change of heart. What changed? My guess is that a reporter finally did some homework and gave him a call, who knows maybe the Montana press will learn a thing or two.

Our very own senior Senator has decided to jump ahead of the American people and tackle healthcare before it becomes a crisis.

I almost wrote that with a straight face. Seriously, who does he think he is kidding with lines like this?

“I want the Finance Committee to be ready, to be ahead of the curve,” he said. “That’s why I’ve begun hearings, getting the facts out, pushing the edge of the envelope.”

Moving on, in other news, Max promised to spend all that hard earned money from California and New York on down ticket races this fall in Montana.

But Baucus’ written statement read to the crowd may have been the most important message for Montana Democratic candidates.

“Whether it’s man-hours or money, I’m going to make sure that Democrats are elected across the state,” Baucus said.

Baucus had $6.4 million in his campaign war chest at the end of March, the last funding period reported.

This fall just remember only 91% of the Montana Democratic Party will owe allegiance to out of state interests.

I laughed about Mary Ann Aker’s blog post at the Post. I mean, it was so insanely partisan and pointless that I’m not sure it wasn’t ghost-written by Montana Democrats. It’s hard to take such a clumsy piece seriously.

But past the ‘hit piece’ nature is an amusing human story. You can just see the poor campaign treasurer scrounging over receipts in a darkly lit office with a single lamp by which to work. He picks up his cup of warm coffee and grabs the next receipt. $300 for “Tune Inn” - no notations. Naturally he assumes that Tune Inn is an Inn where you sleep. Poor guy has probably never been to DC and wouldn’t really know that Tune Inn was a bar. Now his oversight is national news. Whoops.

As bars go though, this is the sort of Bar Montana’s Congressman should go to. Just look at this description.

There are eight mounted deer heads on the walls of the tiny Tune Inn — and, more important, two mounted deer butts. The butts are a lot more emblematic of this raucous neighborhood joint. The most popular thing on the menu is the pitcher of beer, just $5.50 (as long as you order Busch, not any of that yuppie stuff). During the day, the place specializes in workingman breakfasts and quick lunches. At night, if you feel like eating, the straightforward and cheap cheeseburger is the house specialty. Push through the loud throngs that mob the front of the place on weekend evenings and you may find a relatively peaceful booth in the back. An historical note: This is where James Carville and Mary Matalin went on their first date. They left quickly.

Sounds a bit like Stockmans in Missoula. They probably have peanuts. It’s things like this that make me wonder why Montana Democrats are trying to suggest that Rehberg is out of touch with Montana. He’s still Montana through and through - which is why the east-coast liberals like to make fun of him so much.

And where’s the contrast with Max Baucus? And a tab of $300 is a drop in the bucket compared with the $37,000 Max Baucus spent in three months on pretentious high-brow east coast restaurants. Think there’s not a difference?

Cheers to Rehberg for keeping it real.

Cheers to Jay for getting the humor.

Jeers to Lamnidae for being lamely partisan.

Jeers to the Washington Post for paying a Democrat Party Hack’s salary.

It’s always possible that what informed people take as lies are really just the uninformed rantings of political sheep. Jay Stevens finds himself between a rock and a hard place: he is either a liar or he just has no clue what he is talking about. Supposing he was a liar, of course, would be crediting him with being able to see through the cloud of B.S. that Montana Democrats lay down and he doesn’t have a very strong track record with that.

What’s leading me to think that maybe Jay Stevens may not be lying and may be merely demonstrating his clueless constitution instead?

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Seventh-string candidate Jim Hunt is earning his billing as an underdog. Lately, he’s been going after Republican Chairman and Rehberg Chief of Staff Erik Iverson.

But Hunt on Tuesday went on the offensive and Iverson was in his sights. Iverson, Rehberg’s chief of staff, came under fire when he was elected chairman of the Montana Republican Party. Hunt said Tuesday he saw no reason for Iverson to be based in Montana when there was a pile of work to be done in Washington, D.C.

I’ve already covered Iverson v. Hunt, Round 1 where Iverson set the record straight on Children’s Health Insurance. Hunt is outmatched against Iverson, let alone Rehberg. But the attack above is baffling.

Is Hunt actually going after Rehberg and Iverson for being based in Montana as opposed to Washington, DC? We know that Rehberg doesn’t even rent an apartment in DC (he sleeps on the couch in his Congressional Office). The fact that his Chief of Staff is based in Montana is a good thing. How better to represent the people of Montana than to live among them? Somehow for Hunt, proximity to the constituents that Rehberg represents is a bad?

Maybe Hunt is learning the wrong lessons from Senator Max Baucus who sold his house in Montana to move out to Washington, DC and doesn’t even own in Montana (unless you count the bedroom he owns in his mom’s house).

Jim Hunt has been in the race for 2 months and he’s already Gone Washington.

In 2006, you couldn’t pick up a newspaper without hearing about how many Burns staffers took jobs as lobbyists. I believe Montana Democrats used the phrase “revolving door” quite a few times. I actually never had too big a problem with this since realistically there was nothing he could have done to prevent it. If a staffer wants to take a new job with a giant pay increase and more perks there’s not much to be done about it. It’s still a free country.

As Max Baucus could undoubtedly explain since he too has to deal with a lot of staffers heading for the gold-laced hills of lobbying.

Since 1996, a fifth of U.S. Sen. Max Baucus’ highest-paid staff members have left their jobs to become lobbyists, usually for industries regulated by the powerful committee that Baucus heads, a Gazette State Bureau analysis shows.

I’m not going to fault Baucus for this. As with Burns, Baucus doesn’t have any way to prevent this. My problem is with how the Montana media covered the Burns story in 2006. Knowing that the “revolving door” wasn’t just Burns’ problem in 2006 would have helped shape the corruption story that proved Burns’ undoing.

If the media had spent a few hours doing the research that they did for this story about Baucus, it would have been clear that the “revolving door” was not just Burns’ problem but one that afflicted any powerful Senator as a natural course of their power. Their influence gives their staff influence that makes them attractive to the private sector - which has a lot more money.

Senator Max Baucus really doesn’t spend much time in Montana. He raises his money out of state, he lives in Virginia and he drops $1,500 on steaks for his big-city friends on a single night out. He’s out of touch and it’s not just conservatives that are noticing it.

They were enthusiastic (if slightly less energetic due to the wine, beer and length of the program) for Hillary, and very friendly to Tester, Schweitzer and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. But Max? During his time at the podium, people stepped outside for a smoke, used the bathroom, got themselves another drink or another hors d’oeuvre, wandered around the Civic Center, and visited with friends and colleagues. I think Cece perfectly summed it up in her post. Take note, Max.

do you think baucus is getting the hint yet. Pay attention to your constituents or we won’t pay attention to you. simple enough?

Ouch.

Even so, the papers report that everyone loves him - that he enjoys some of the highest approval ratings in the country. So when I see this from someone that you would think would be in his base - I find myself wondering:

Who are these supporters and why haven’t I met many of them?

The Western Word and Montana Headlines already covered the juicy story about Max’s extravagant lifestyle in Washington, DC. It’s always fun when the Montana media digs into a Democrat, although I don’t expect there to be much follow-up (sort of like the Missoulian reported then forgot that 91% of Max’ campaign dollar are from out-of-state sources).

$37,000 on food at fancy Washington, DC restaurants in three months. I can’t imagine how many friends I could buy with a $1,400 tab at Charlie Palmer steakhouse or a $1,560 tab at The Monocle. But I am going to take a page from the Liberal rhetorical handbook.

Liberals love to attack policies they don’t like by postulating about what the money could have otherwise been spent for. I don’t like this rhetorical device since it always filters inefficient money back into an inefficient government program and the same dollars tend to be spent multiple times.

However, in this case, we’re not talking about government money, but campaign dollars. So let’s postulate on our own how Senator Max Baucus could have spent $37,000 more usefully. I’ll start:

Why not give The Poverello Center in Missoula a call and ask them how you can help. The Pov is an outstanding organization with some of the best people I’ve ever met working hard to help people who need it. They’ll take food, money or your volunteered time. And while you have them on the phone, why not ask them what they could do with $37,000.

535 Ryman Street
Missoula, MT 59802
(406) 728-1809

If you decide to volunteer, try not to imagine your Senator lamenting the corruptive money of politics while stuffing his face with a $70 steak while you’re there. It will probably make you sick.