Hit the Road…

The gubernatorial campaign of erstwhile Helena native, Neil Livingstone, is evidently trying to go to the next level, but it seems that he’s learning the hard way that the trail has a few bumps.

His neighbors must have been thrilled to wake up this morning to see their quiet street decorated by a huge political billlboard. Out in front of Livingstone’s Westside mansion was this decked out RV prominently featuring the handsome face of former Navy- SEAL, Ryan Zinke. standing proud of the campaign headliner.

Before a crowd of about two, not counting family, groupies, and a reporter who had nothing more exciting to report on a beautiful summer day and when most people have any number of more enticing things to do besides listen to a politician ramble, Livingstone made his long-awaited much-anticipated expected announcement that Zinke would be his running mate and they were kicking off their big statewide tour. Yawn. Someone might want to clue them in that the visual impact of a non-existant crowd is generally not a hallmark of a healthy campaign – and Sunday afternoons aren’t great times for pressers or political rallies. But the brand-new Lt. Gov. candidate did liven up the event when he started the rig up and rear-ended a vintage 1964 Chevy Camaro convertible.

According to Zinke, the RV was a gift from his wife and he is loaning it to the campaign for travels around the state. Apparently in the excitement over such a timely and useful present, no one bothered to check out how the wrapper would be situated in relation to the whatchamacallits that stick out on the side of the vehicle. Having the vent-thingys going across Livingstone’s face isn’t very flattering. Nor does having that Pacman-like reflector sitting on his shoulder making his suspender look like a long black tongue cascading down his shirt look all that well thought out. But those are all picky details and only affect one side of the bus – the prominent use of the State Seal, however, is a problem:

One element of the Secretary of State’s job is to serve as keeper of the Great Seal of the State of Montana. The office grants permission for organizations or individuals who want to use the seal on materials. That permission is typically not given for political campaigns because it would imply that a campaign already had the endorsement of the people of Montana.[Emphasis added.]

Not only is the Great Seal on the RV, but it’s also pasted all over the candidate’s website. His campaign finance reports show that he has already paid about $15,000 to some fancy consulting group in Washington DC and staffers in Florida and DC – who ought to be slapped upside the head for incompetence for not knowing the Montana political practices laws, including those about reporting deadlines. What IS he paying them all that money for anyway?????

It’s not clear what the fundamental reason for Livingstone’s campaign is. Maybe he will find a narrative as he rolls around the Treasure State. That is, of course, as long as he and his intrepid running-mate, “Crash” Zinke, don’t hit any more bumps on the road.

Say What ???

Or more appropriately – Who said this?

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies.

Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.

Americans deserve better.

Your guesses, please…


Tough Choice

Quarterly campaign finance reports were in the news today and for Montana political junkies there wasn’t much of a surprise in any of the numbers. The candidates who were in the lead with the dollars were the same ones leading in the polls. Duh.

Which, of course, will not prevent me from making a few observations:

Observation 1. Rick Hill is meeting and/or exceeding all expectations for running an aggressive, smart campaign, and has pretty much taken an insurmountable lead for the primaries. In addition, he has caused his general election opponents to shoot off all their ammo already. The liberal bloggers have gone all Rambo with every attack they can think of, fairly effectively turning “old news” into “regurgitated, recycled old news”. By the time the primaries are over next June, there won’t even be any arrows left in their quivers, let alone nukes in the warheads.

Observation 2. Ken Miller will never be the governor of this state. While he has a “devoted” following, it consists of the very uber-religious, albeit small, group that has chosen to ignore his history of fiscal irresponsibility (he left the state GOP budget in a huge deficit after his term as Chair of the party) in an election cycle where fiscal history is critical to a candidate’s success. The rest of the party not only remembers his history, they still hold him responsible for the election of Brian Schweitzer in 2004. This isn’t the year of the Religious Right. Trust me on this one, it’s not Miller Time in Montana.

Observation 3. Neil Livingstone is not a viable candidate. He may be smart. He may have a resume that impresses the hell out of some people. He may have access to more money than God. Doesn’t make a tinker’s damn worth of difference. He has no base in the party and he obviously doesn’t take the race seriously. Credible candidates don’t miss the deadline for filing campaign finance reports because their staff doesn’t know what the rules are. They also don’t show up at the State GOP Convention without a clue as to what’s-going-on-when, and at least one volunteer whi knows even a dozen delegates. If this were the 2008 senate race, maybe Livingstone could pull a Kelleher, but this year, this race, there’s not much chance that this primary election will come down to “eeney, meeney, miney, moe” at the ballot box.

Observation 4. Cory Stapleton remains an enigma. He certainly brings out strong emotions in people – not all of them positive. He’s running a really d-i-s-t-a-n-t second and stands to lose the most if Jeff Essman follows through on his plans to jump in the gubernatorial sandbox. He has some interesting ideas and certainly does bring a younger, fresher look to the race. Hard telling if he’ll play the role of spoiler or spoiled.

Observation 5. Jim O’Hara, a current county commissioner from Chouteau County rounds out the field – or brings up the rear, as it were. Of course, there’s no guarantee that Jim will actually come in last – a couple of the others certainly have potential to win that distinction.

So what’s so tough about that choice, you ask? Nothing. The tough choice is the one that Democrat Steve Bullock has to make.

Observation 6. Poor Steve. The D’s are hard-put to come up with an heir to Schweitzer’s throne in ’12 except for Steve – and rumor has it, that’s not for lack of trying. Practically every conceivable candidate has been asked, cajoled, wheedled, begged, bribed – okay, maybe not bribed – and/or strong-armed to consider entering the race. The only ones who have stepped up to the plate so far – Dave Wanzenried and Larry Jent – seem to be generating about the same level of enthusiasm as a three-day-old bucket of warm spit. Conventional wisdom (a/k/a political gossipmongers) confidently expects Bullock to suck it up and come to the aid of the party.

But it can’t be an easy decision for the guy. He’s young and has a long future ahead of him – if this election doesn’t cut it off at the knees, so to speak. And it could do just that.

The 2012 governor’s race is no sure deal for either party’s nominee, because a lot of the momentum will be dependent on the presidential and senatorial races and those are total crapshoots at this point. So Steve is confronted with a dilemma: He can keep his current job as Attorney General – he could easily whip the only announced Republican candidate, Jim Shockley. Or he can throw caution to the wind and go for the East Wing. Call it a 50/50 gamble. At best. Not that he’d be out on the street with nothing to do if he loses, but the family budget would be taking a big hit – not an insignificant factor to a father of three youngsters. More importantly – career-wise – if he runs and misses, it will likely be eight years before he could take another shot at the brass ring, because in four years it would be a rematch – not a very desirable situation, and 2014 looks to be a Baucus – Schweitzer headliner . But if he chooses the safe race this year, then his options in four years still aren’t so shiny when he’s termed out as AG and would most likely face an incumbent in the governor’s race. Not an easy choice.

Rock meet Hard Place.

“Me and Paul Revere”

Not generally thought of as one of America’s great musicians nor historians, comedian Steve Martin performed his new blue grass ballad, “Me and Paul Revere” on the Mall at the annual Capitol Fourth Concert in Washington DC. Martin tells the story of that famous ride from the perspective of the horse who carried the dedicated patriot through the countryside that fateful night…

Apparently Sarah Palin got it right and even that bastion of Hollywood liberals, Steve Martin, acknowledges it (although begrudgingly at best in his introduction to the song tonight): After being captured, Revere warned the British that the rebels in Lexington were armed and ready to fight for their freedom. Who knew? Evidently not many of the liberal intelligentsia who learned everything they know about that episode of American history from a nineteenth century poem.

Yeah, If You Don’t Count Sarah

Public Policy Polling released a new poll today trumpeting Michele Bachmann’s surge to the lead in the race for the GOP presidential nomination in Montana and Oregon.

We’ve never found her leading one of our state polls until now but Michele Bachmann’s been on fire for the last two weeks and we find her at the top of the GOP field in both Oregon and Montana when Sarah Palin’s not included [Emphasis added.]. That’s just more indication that if Palin ends up not running Bachmann will pretty instantaneously vault to co-front runner status with Mitt Romney, provided she can continue her current momentum.

You gotta love the these guys: No matter what the facts are they’ll twist ’em until they can write the story they want. And I bet the pollsters would rather take a beating than have to admit that, “In both Montana and Oregon Palin has easily the best net favorability of any of the GOP contenders…” After almost three years of the most vitriolic, obnoxious, mean-spirited, inaccurate, incessant, lying attacks, Sarah Palin remains a strong contender. With Obumble’s ratings doing a reasonable impression of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” nosedive, his campaign staff and media helpers have to be practically catatonic with worry. The last thing Jim Messina wants is to have to put the TOTUS up against a SARAHCUDA next year, because he knows deep-down that the headlines on November 7, 2012 can only proclaim BO the winner if Sarah Palin doesn’t run. Count on it.

For those of you who like visual aids – below are two photos that illustrate my point very well. Both Sarah and Obama were in Iowa today.

Here’s a picture of Sarah greeting some of the crowd outside the Pella, Iowa Opera House this afternoon before the screening of “The Undefeated”.


[H/T Politicons.net]

And here’s the President at the Alcoa factory where he was, as the LA Times put it, “[P]leading for yet more time to create new jobs – and keep his.”


[H/T DesMoines Register]

National Tag Sale?

I recognize that I’m not going to be confused with any of the Royal Smart People anytime soon, but I do have a question that nobody seems to be addressing: What with the US budget being so far in the red and the deficit spiraling out of control faster than a three-year-old on a sugar high, why are the conversations limited to a debate about taxing and spending???

When real people get into a budget crunch, they have to look at not only cutting expenses and increasing income, but they also – generally speaking – look at selling assets. Got a bunch of extra stuff? Have a garage sale and pay off a credit card balance. The rentals aren’t bringing in enough to cover the expenses? Get rid of them! Can’t pay the mortgage on your primary residence and you’re hanging on to a second home? Sell the sucker!

So why isn’t Congress looking at trimming back on federal property? There are over 650 million acres of land owned by Uncle Sam, mostly in the West, but all across the country, not to mention hundreds (maybe even thousands) of buildings that could be sold off to pay down the debt.

Let’s see – the debt clock says it’s about $14.2 trillion and counting. How much do you suppose a few acres along the Pacific coast will bring in? A house overlooking the waves crashing against the massive rock formations is likely to rate pretty dang high on the Desire-o-Meter. That acreage will probably be snapped up in a heartbeat for tip-top dollar. Ca-ching! How about that land in Alaska and in the lower forty-eight that’s prime for oil development and mining? Can’t we get someone to buy some of those national forests that are just waiting to go up in flames instead of being properly managed for long-term investment potential?

It seems like a discussion that ought to be going on all over the country. Selling off some of the under-utilized real estate has both short and long term benefits. Obviously, some quick cash is a good thing. A few billion here, a few billion there, and pretty soon the whole economy is looking a touch healthier. Also – less federal land = fewer government employees = reduced ongoing expense. On the other side of the ledger, all that formerly federal land would turn into ongoing property tax revenues for city and county governments. And just possibly, industries like logging, mining, agriculture, and maybe even tourism would bring in jobs and, oh you know, revenue to the state coffers as well. Seems like a win-win-win-win strategy.

So why aren’t we talking about this????

Fall of Print Media

Guest Post by Loki

I find the recent shakeup at the Helena Independent Record (HIR) very interesting. I wonder if the HIR and Lee Enterprises is about to collapse. And if it does, is it because of the Internet or their bias.

John Doran was only appointed editor a few years ago in 2007. Now they are combining the editor positions of the Montana Standard and HIR into one position and Doran is thrown to the curb. They call this a ‘cost saving’ change. Yet they are also promoting several others and hiring others in Butte. I can’t see how that can produce a cost saving. It sounds more like a shakeup and change of direction.

The HIR is what I would call a typical moderately liberal newspaper. Most if not all of its news stories are from liberal sources such as the NY Times, AP and Reuters. But I also know that John Doran believes he is publishing a balanced paper without bias. If anything he has gone out of his way to try to bring a balance to the paper. Paul Krugman used to be one of the HIR’s go to guys on the opinion page. Publishing of Krugman’s articles have declined quite a bit recently. Doran has also starting publishing a monthly synopsis of the articles on the opinion page listing the bias of the national writers. This makes me wonder if Doran went too far and management is trying to realign the paper to its liberal readers.

But nationally newspapers have been trying to compete with the Internet where readers can pick and choose their news sources. This has caused a nationwide drop in readers and stock value for newspapers.

This leaves the question what is the real reason behind the shakeup. Is it a step backwards to bias or is it a real attempt at cost savings?

In my opinion it may not matter. Moving the editor from the state capitol and trying to run the HIR remotely is destined for failure. The logistics are stretched and the cost savings imaginary. Also the false belief that an editor in Butte can understand the politics that permeate all of Helena. I see this shakeup as a major managerial failure.

I wonder where I will get be getting my advertising flyers in the future.

Obama’s Achilles Heel

Guest Post by Loki

The Presidential race has begun. Republicans and conservatives are sorting through the candidates trying to find someone to save this country from disastrous ruin. But who can defeat the ‘One’? The answer is simple, he will defeat himself. It is through his own hubris that he will bring his own castle of cards down around himself. Hopefully before the destruction of this country.

Obama has shown himself to be nothing more than the community organizer and Chicago thug some had foreseen before the election. His knowledge was garnered from socialist professors who declared to their captive disciples that the capitalist government was evil and if it could be converted to a socialist government the USA would be a utopia. Obama believed them and put their teachings to work to be rewarded with utter failure. His economic failures are on par with the worst decisions ever made. With daily headlines of ‘unexpected’ and results worse than predicted he keeps trudging forward confident in his own idolatry that he is right and the world is wrong and will correct itself. He leads the country like the Judas lemming going over a cliff.

That is his greatest weakness. His belief that he is never wrong and everyone else is always wrong. His belief that as president all must obey without questioning him or his greatness. Propped up by the media he believes his own reviews while ignoring the audience stampeding to the exits. Now he spreads that hubris to the war in Libya. Ignoring the Constitution and the War Powers Act he also ignores Congress and his own lawyers believing his own greatness.

All that is needed to put this one-term-president behind us is a viable candidate. This has been shown by recent polls showing that any generic republican can defeat him. But we should not settle for just defeating Obama, but instead should be looking for the best Republican to reverse the direction of this country and prove to the country the fallacy of Obama’s beliefs.

We have a plethora of candidates but so far none has been outstanding. We need an outstanding candidate. Then we can watch Obama and his administration’s inevitable collapse under their ineptitude.

You Asked For It, You Got It

The new DNC Chair – foxy, charming, tough-as-nails Debbie Whatshername-Shitz, has finally admitted what the rest of us figured out months ago:

Democrats are ready to take responsibility for the state of the economy and they deserve credit for putting it on the right track, the party’s chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, said on Wednesday. “We own the economy…”

And Rasmussen’s latest survey tends to show that more and more Americans are giving the Dems credit for the country’s economic malaise. Two years ago as many as 62% of voters blamed the nation’s economic woes on President Bush. Last week 56% of mainstream voters laid the blame squarely at Obama’s feet.

So it’s nice to know that the administration is finally willing to man up and shoulder some responsibility. But the fact that they think that their current policies have them on the right track is more than scary. When 65% of the population is out here yelling “Stop!!! No!!! Wrong way!!!!”, it ill behooves Ms. Whatshername to be pointing the train the same direction and pouring on the steam.

H/T Sundance, The Last Refuge.