The Evil Elephant...

There once was a time when we would hear and read about the merits of each candidate as they trudged through the semi-friendly election cycles.  Well, there actually was, but you'd have to be as old as me to remember.  While some meanness prevailed, it was nothing like today.  Meanness and Money.  If we could go back and scoop up the money spent on elections the last few decades, we could...well, let's just say this:  With all of the money spent by candidates, donors, and super-pacs, you'd think we would have ended up with a better class of office winners.

 

But, the money is spent, so let's get back to meanness.  The Party of "Family Values" is testing our patience once again.

Remember this name:  Jeff Essman, (R-Billings), Montana Republican Chairman, Member of the Montana House of Representatives,  All-Around Mean Guy.

 

 

His track record as a Montana politician has always been rather questionable.  His operating style can be described, bluntly, as:  don't force it...use a big, dirty, greasy, unethical hammer instead.

 

His latest brain-sick act as Chairman was to send an email to all of the party elephants and ask them to send him any and all of the vicious and spiteful things they can dig up on Governor Bullock.  The "offerings" will be used to the fullest in next year's election to unseat the governor.

 

It's not as if the Montana Republican Party hasn't relied on this strategy before.  The difference, however, is that it's now spelled out, disseminated, and hanging out there for God and everyone to see and marvel at the thickheaded stupidity.  Is there no civility left in this group?  Is there nothing left of integrity?  Have they lowered the bar of common decency so low that anything can slither over it? 

 

I am one who still believes a voter wants to know something about a candidate that they could see as a positive reason to vote for him or her.  Trashing the opposition candidate may be the sick political way, but it's doesn't have to be the Montana way.

 

Republican Chairman Essman may turn out to be the Democrat's dream...and his own party's nightmare!



 

 

 

     

First Assess Blame...Then Read The Facts

Daines caricature source:  Creative Common

Let's begin with one glaring fact that no one can dismiss.  Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Rep. Ryan Zenke (R-MT) had little-to-no knowledge of the Iran Nuclear Deal when they began rejecting it out of hand.

     Only a fool would pass judgement without learning the facts.
   
First, we could excuse Zenke's "me too" opinions because he is fairly new in his job and is trying to prove to his party's leadership that he can rubber stamp an issue with the best of them.

Sen. Daines, however, deserves no such free pass.  His one term in the U.S. House proved he could vote 'no' about fifty times on the ACA with no reasonable argument, other than it was President Obama's bill.  (He offered no viable alternative health care reform plan.)

The Senator has given us his "expert opinion" on the Iran nuclear deal with no apparent need to read the full details.  As a matter of fact, nearly every Republican Senator and Representative condemned the deal before the 100+  pages of the negotiated deal were even available.

Sound familiar?  The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare, to the GOP) was trashed the same way.  Their modus operandi is to trash it first and trash it often.  Facts will, of course,  just muddy the waters, anyway.

Remember those forty-seven GOP nitwits who signed and mailed a letter to the Iranian Government during the negotiations, asking that whatever plan was presented by the U.S. should be thrown in the trash?

It's all simply another example of how far these Republicans will go to cripple their president.  When the GOP Leadership hands out the marching orders, the lackeys begin their goose- stepping.

For the record, I have no idea how good - or bad - this Iran Deal is...but I'd sure read it before offering an opinion!  Heck, I think I learned that piece of wisdom in middle school.

Daines and Zenke should have learned it then, too.