Brian Schweitzer v Max Baucus - 2014 Primary

Brian Schweitzer v Max Baucus – 2014 Primary

Looking back at the weekend’s Montana Democratic Party Convention, I can’t help but wonder if this year’s senate campaign between Jon Tester and Denny Rehberg is little more than practice for the 2014 primary against Max Baucus.

One of the top arguments against Denny Rehberg is all of his votes for the Patriot Act. If you’re a Democratic Party activist and volunteer to write a letter to the editor against Rehberg, it’s quite likely you’ll be asked to complain about his support for the Patriot Act. The same practice Democrats will get this year whacking Rehberg for his Patriot Act support will come in handy next cycle when it’s time to hold Max Baucus accountable for his support of the Patriot Act. It’s the same argument, all you have to do is switch the names.

Another big topic iss the REAL ID Act. Same thing, another example of Montanans hating something Rehberg did, campaigning on it all year and getting practice to hold Max Baucus accountable for being as wrong as Rehberg.

Iraq War? Ditto.

Cosiness with big money special interests? Baucus is even worse.

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Jim Messina, Obama’s Josh Lyman, Needed Help Turning on ESPN?

8:18 pm in Uncategorized by Bob Brigham

The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein has a new piece on the sausage making that resulted in the pathetic health care bill. Sam seemed to pitch his editors on writing a story that HCR was just like Obama’s campaign, but he wrote it with a secondary narrative surrounding the University of Montana football season, which wasn’t clearly defined, but should have been the metaphor for looking at what ended up in the context of the midterms.

While I live in California, I went to UM and was even the student voice during the 1997 legislative session. I’d watched a number of last year’s regular season games online (it was easy, all I had to do was go to www.MontanaGrizzlies.com and follow the links). Of course, I watched all the playoff games.

But if you want a secondary metaphor, what the fuck is up with this?

[Jim] Messina grew antsy. Somehow, with the help of a Reid staffer, he found the Montana game on one of the office’s small television sets.

This was the championship, the final game of the season, but Jim Messina had no clue how to watch it outside of the White House theater? Now I’m not surprised he couldn’t figure out how to watch it online, but the game was the championship, it was on ESPN. Yet it was only "somehow" — with staff support — that Jim Messina changed the channel to ESPN, despite all his time on the Hill as Chief of Staff to Max Baucus, Byron Dorgan and Carolyn McCarthy.

Is it any wonder the White House doesn’t even try to do more?

Tags: ESPN, health care reform, jim messina, montana
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