Polls show McGrath made wrong decision

Yesterday, the Great Falls Tribune placed a poll on their website asking about Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath’s decision not to investigate his good buddy, Governor Brian Schweitzer. Schweitzer was caught telling what he did in 2006 to rig the election for fellow Democrat, Jon Tester. In this poll, you can vote on-line or by telephone.

Here’s the question (notice the Tribune did not list McGrath’s name for some reason):

Do you agree with the state attorney general's decision to deny requests for an investigation into Gov. Schweitzer's comments?

Today the Tribune placed the results in their hardcopy edition. As far as I can tell, the results are not on-line. The final results show:

YES: 33%

NO: 67%

There were 932 votes. Of course these polls are not scientific, but as someone who follows these polls everyday, the number of people taking time to vote was pretty high for a Tribune poll.

So two-thirds of those voting did not like the fact that Attorney General Mike McGrath did not investigate his buddy, Governor Brian Schweitzer.

The Western Word also posted a poll a day before the Tribune poll. Although the number of people voting was less than the Tribune’s here are the question and the results:

Do you agree with Montana AG Mike McGrath’s decision not to investigate Governor Brian Schweitzer’s actions during the election of 2006?

YES: 4%

NO: 96%

One thing for sure, most folks don’t agree with McGrath’s decision, and I guarantee it won’t be going away anytime soon.

Energy and Photos

The man who Governor Brian Schweitzer rigged the 2006 election for sent a “prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense” postcard to Montanans to let us know his views on the energy problem.

I thought the Montana Democratic Party was against these “prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense” mailers? In 2006, they called these mailers “a shameless waste of taxpayer dollars.”

So, it will be good to hear what they have to say about Jon Tester’s “shameless waste of taxpayer dollars.”

My home received two, which was even more of “a shameless waste of taxpayer dollars.” Of course, his photo was on the postcard four times and it lists his plan of action.

Today in the New York Times, Tester’s photo is displayed with the man who “turned some dials” for his tainted victory, Governor Brian Schweitzer.

Sadly, the Democrats took a 38 day paid vacation and would not allow votes on comprehensive plans to start solving the energy problem.

Ironically, just about the time Barack Obama flip-flopped on off-shore drilling, it appears Jon Tester has followed his leader’s flip-flop according to his website.

I did not see anything about nuclear power. Most of his other stands on the energy issue are pretty vanilla. Here’s his postcard. Enjoy.

McGrath Protects Schweitzer

It did not take long for Montana’s Attorney General, Mike McGrath (D), to basically say he was going to protect Montana’s Governor, Brian Schweitzer (D) from an investigation. He probably had the letter ready to go, because they are good friends, don’t you know.

Can you believe it? One must wonder if McGrath was at the Schweitzer speech in person.

This afternoon, NewWest.net reporter Robert Struckman reports:

“McGrath declined to investigate comments made by Gov. Brian Schweitzer at a fundraising event in Philadelphia on July 14, describing the speech as “admittedly intemperate” and saying “the accusations contain no allegation supported by fact.”

Well, it has been verified that he called the head of the elections office for Silver Bow County, and we know that he called the Associated Press. Both times he was trying to influence the outcome of the election. Hopefully the U.S. Attorney’s office in Montana will dig into Schweitzer’s contacts on the reservations.

Then Mr. Struckman reports that McGrath said,

“The misuse of the criminal justice system for political purposes is a serious matter. It is inappropriate to use a public office as election-season PR for a political blogger or any other special interest,” he says.

Tampering with elections is very much a serious matter, Mr. McGrath – at least most Montanans think so. Maybe the next Montana Attorney General, Tim Fox, will take things like this a little more seriously.

By the way, McGrath wants to be the next Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court. Good grief. He lost a lot of votes today.

By the way, Mr. McGrath, thanks for acknowledging political bloggers. We did the work for you. You fumbled the ball.

Let the Investigation Begin

Almost everyone who has commented on the blogs and in newspaper columns about Brian Schweitzer’s tampering with the 2006 Senate election is not at all happy with him messing around with elections. The news has spread across the World Wide Web like a wildfire on a prairie. His remarks will dog him for a long time and harm his future in the political world.

Today we find that Montana Secretary of State Brad Johnson (R) has contacted Montana’s Attorney General, Mike McGrath (D), and asked him to investigate a citizen’s complaint about the Governor’s tampering with the election. He also asked that if McGrath was not going to investigate it, that he refer it to the appropriate county attorney.

Brad Johnson has done a tremendous job as Montana’s Secretary of State and always places those duties of that office about party politics.

But, I would not hold my breath that Montana AG McGrath will do anything. Maybe he will surprise us and place having open and honest elections above his party. In 2005, he failed to act on a similar issue within his party that dealt with Democratic Senate candidate John Morrison and Jon Tester breaking the law when they placed pre-recorded phone calls to raise money for their campaigns.

One can only imagine that McGrath’s personal phone line is burning up with calls coming in from Gov. Schweitzer, Sen. Jon Tester, Montana Democratic Party Chairman Dennis McDonald, and Sen. Max Baucus.

They all have a lot to lose.

McGrath is between a rock and hard spot. He is running for Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court. On his campaign website he states, “I believe I have the integrity, breadth of experience and commitment to fairness that position demands.”

The ball is in your court, AG McGrath. We’re waiting.

Now the Spin

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer apologized (set the spin in motion) late today for his recorded remarks last summer in July 2008 where he claims he won the race for his pal, U.S. Senate candidate, Jon Tester.

As has been reported first in the blog, MT Pundit, and picked up by the Great Falls Tribune and the Associated Press, he tampered with several people involved in the election.

Schweitzer claimed he ran Republican poll watchers off the reservations by having his people threaten them with jail, and that he pressured an election official from Butte-Silver Bow County.

Of course, he gave his apology to the Associated Press (AP), which let him go unchallenged. You can read the whole AP story HERE.

Basically Schweitzer either lied to the convention people to get a laugh or he’s lying now to save his butt. I think the latter is true.

So, I don’t accept his apology. It is just a cheap way out of a sticky situation. The Governor was starting to see the “crap” hit the fan so to save his butt, as well as his re-election efforts, he apologized.

Supposedly state and federal officials are “reviewing” his comments, but the AP quickly pointed out that it was not an investigation - unlike they said in the summer of 2006 when their reporter jumped on the bandwagon to go after a Republican.

Of course Tester’s mouthpiece was asked about the remarks and he feels his boss won the race “fair and square.” Sure you do. Now your man has been branded with the fact that he won a tainted election.

This issue is not over. A few people have filed complaints and that is good. Of course, The Western Word will keep posting new information when it becomes available and we’ll share it with some national blogs and news networks.

Meanwhile, the 2008 election is fast approaching. Voters in Montana must wonder if more tampering will happen this time, who will make the calls, who will bully poll watchers, and most importantly who might win if not for that. Any voters or poll watchers who feel or see intimidation, must make a stand to ensure the best candidate wins. We don’t want to see the election of 2006 repeated.

Tampering

It looks like Governor Brian Schweitzer’s tampering remark about how he single-handedly bagged the 2006 U.S. Senate race for Jon Tester is getting a little attention.

First, some background. Tester ?beat? Senator Conrad Burns by just a few thousand votes. Senator Conrad Burns had beaten Brian Schweitzer in 2000. Schweitzer never got over that loss and may have stepped over the line to help Tester beat Burns. Jon Tester should be feeling a little down that his narrow win is now tainted by cheating.

The Blog, MT Pundit, broke the story by releasing the audio where the Governor went on and on about how he won the election for Tester. These remarks were apparently made in July 2008 during a Trial Lawyer’s Association convention.

It’s kind of sad that in a room with all these lawyers, they thought Schweitzer's work was hilarious.

Now another story is out there on the website NewWest.net. You can read the story called “Gov. Schweitzer’s Tampering Comments Spark Controversy” by clicking HERE.

Sometimes politicians do dumb things and keep quiet about it. Sometimes, like in this case, they brag about it in public. My mother used to have a saying about things like this. She would have said, “The Governor is too big for his britches.”

One would think that since some of his remarks dealt with the work he did for Jon Tester on Montana’s reservations, one would believe that U.S. Attorneys and other Federal officials might want to investigate it.

Of course, some of Schweitzer’s bloviating about his pressure on some county officials based in largely democratic counties might be handled by the state and federal officials. Who knows what else happened in the early morning hours when the ballots were being counted.

I believe there needs to be a thorough investigation into this issue. Maybe we can then hear from sources close to the investigation or some unnamed sources.

No matter what happens with this tampering issue, this news will undoubtedly make voters have less trust in the way election officials and government officials conduct their elections and the counting of ballots, especially when they or their staff are taking phone calls from the Governor, who had a horse in the race and he had lost to the incumbent a few years before.

Wondering

A fellow Dextra blog, “Electric City Weblog” (ECW) has a must read article on his blog called, “This explains an awful lot.”

Gregg Smith of the ECW has written the article, and it should be read by all those who believe there should be more fairness in the Montana media’s reporting about candidates and officials on the left.

Many of my fellow Dextra Bloggers have written about the poor and shoddy work done by the Montana newspapers, the Associated Press, and other news sources in Montana over the last few years. (You can see a list of the latest posts written by Dextra Bloggers on the left side of the screen, under DextraMontana.)

We saw the beginning of the garbage from the Montana media in 2006. They routinely reported on stories that appeared to have been ripped from the press releases of the Montana Democratic Party and the Tester for Senate Campaign, and instead of investigating these rumors, they cited unnamed sources and sources close to the investigation. They asked very few questions. They basically convicted people before the facts came out. They did little investigating, and it appears they copied and pasted lines from press releases issued by the Montana Democrats and Tester’s campaign. They felt it was easier to sit on one’s butt instead of getting out and performing the work of a real journalist.

Now here we are in 2008. There are many issues with Montana’s Governor that need some sunlight on them, but they are getting little, if any, coverage in the local newspapers or on local television news.

The fact is if Schweitzer was running as a Republican, the Montana media would be barbecuing him for dinner.

Luckily, the information about the Governor’s deeds are getting out due to the DextraMontana folks little by little. The DextraMontana folks have written about the possible tampering with the 2006 U.S. Senate election, to the issues surrounding his Public Service Announcement done with taxpayer equipment and state employees, to his senior counsel’s contacts with the Commissioner of Political Practices, not to mention the senior counsel’s status as a lawyer.

As Smith wrote, “We’ve already done the work for you.”

What to do. What to do.

When the polls are showing that you are losing the women’s vote, what is a candidate to do?

Drop Joe Biden and bring on Hillary Clinton?

Nope.

Put Michelle out on the campaign trail and have her speak about her pride in America?

Nope.

Parade your two daughters out in front of the media for an interview?

Nope.

The answer is (Drum roll, please):

Have a Women’s week in Montana!!!!!!

Exactly. Lipstick remarks are optional this week. I figure there are more women in Montana supporting McCain because of Sarah Palin than ever. She connects better to people in small towns, people who own guns and, oh yes, people who are religious.

McCain +11 in Montana

Rasmussen is reporting today that John McCain leads Barack Obama 53% to 42%.

McCain led 45-44 in July.

Obama will probably begin pulling his staff out of Montana soon and send them to states where he has a better chance of winning.

The RINO/DINO Argument

Some of my readers may have heard of the term R.I.N.O., which stands for Republican In Name Only, and D.I.N.O., which stands for Democrat In Name Only.

These terms are basically used by folks who feel Republican candidates or office holders aren’t conservative enough or by Democrats who feel their candidates or office holders aren’t liberal enough.

Sometimes when people feel their party’s candidate is a RINO or DINO, they throw their support behind a third party candidate.

I’d rather vote for a candidate whom I agree with 60-90% of the time, than vote for a candidate who has no chance of winning and basically help elect one that I agree with 10-30% of the time. But that’s just me. Of course, it is a voter’s right to vote for whom they want or not vote at all. Some people believe they are throwing their vote away. I don’t believe that. I think they are just a little misguided.

Do any elected officials or candidates actually toe the party line 100% of the time?

It seems we don’t hear the DINO term being used very often, because it seems the Democrats and progressives/liberals circle the wagons better than the Republicans and conservatives. At least we don’t see too many Democrats going to the media to say that with Nader on the ballot, it pretty much means Obama will lose the state.

Just recently I read on a blog and on some of Montana newspaper websites that Montana will have five Presidential candidates on the ballot in November. I know there are several other Presidential candidates out there that (thankfully) did not make the ballot in Montana.

It looks like on the ballot in November we will have Bob Barr from the Libertarian Party; Ron Paul from the Constitution Party, John McCain from the Republican Party; Ralph Nader as an Independent; and Barack Obama from the Democratic Party all playing at a local polling place near you.

On ESPN they have the football analysts who make their pick just before their Monday night game. They use a term called the “lead pipe lock” when picking which team will be the winner. On the other side, I think it is safe to say that it is a “lead pipe lock” that Paul, Barr, and Nader will NOT be the next President and they will NOT win Montana. But, they may do some harm to Barack Obama and John McCain.

The Democratic and Republican parties in Montana will need to do some work for their candidates so they won’t lose the state because the third party candidates take their votes. They might as well fire up their party and voters because too much is at stake. Saying something like, “A vote for Nader is a vote for McCain” or “A vote for Barr or Paul is a vote for Obama” just might help shock those folks who sling the term RINO and DINO into casting their votes for McCain or Obama.

Tough Times for Obama

It seems things are getting a little tough for Barack Obama. Some polls are showing that he has lost his convention bounce and now trails McCain.

When your 19 month campaign is starting to fail, it’s time to make things up.

Sunday, it was being reported that Obama said he “considered joining the United States military” out of high school. If he actually considered joining the military, it would seem he would have written about this desire in his two books that were about his life.

Statements like these won’t get Obama very far with military members and veterans. Obama fails to see that many of us actually did serve in the military. We don’t need to say ridiculous things like we “considered joining” or even the more ridiculous stuff like our relative served in the military. That’s what Obama has done and it was, to say the least, ridiculous.

Trying to reconcile one’s lack of military service with statements like this is very weak.

But that was not the only news Obama made Sunday. He appeared on ABC’s “This Week” with former Clinton staffer George Stephanopoulos. Like a good Democrat, Stephanopoulos tried to save Obama:

"Let's not play games," he said. "What I was suggesting -- you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you're absolutely right that that has not come."

Mr. Stephanopoulos interrupted with, "Christian faith."

"My Christian faith," Mr. Obama said quickly.

Was it just a slip of the tongue? Maybe. Obama looks very tired lately. You can check it out the video HERE and draw your own conclusions.

Then Joe Biden made some news on Sunday in Kalispell:

"This is not a place where you traditionally expect to see Democratic candidates run for national office," he said at an afternoon rally in Kalispell, Mont. "But in case you didn't notice, Barack Obama has been (to Montana) five times.

"Now, they finally thought it was safe enough to risk sending me out here."

Maybe it’s “safe enough” because we cling to our guns and religion out here in Montana, Senator Biden.