Monica Lindeen hired as executive director
of the Montana Democratic Party

Lindeen in Kalispell in 2016.

Mary Sexton, head of the Montana Democratic Party, today announced that former state auditor Monica Lindeen will replace Nancy Keenan, who is retiring, as the MDP’s executive director. Lindeen’s first day on the job will 2 January.

Lindeen’s political résumé is similar to Keenan’s, but is more Montana centric.

Beginning in 1999, Lindeen served four terms in the Montana House of Representatives. She lost to Denny Rehberg in the 2006 election for Montana’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, then won elections for auditor in 2008 and 2012. Her last hurrah was in 2016 when she lost to Corey Stapleton in the election for Montana’s secretary of state.

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How old were Presidents when elected to their first term?

Updated. Since 1900, the median ages for first term wins are 51 for Democrats, 55 for Republicans. The difference is statistically significant at the 80 percent level, and insignificant at a practical level.

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President Trump’s support is not collapsing … yet

President Trump is holding to his demand for $5+ billion for The Wall because his support, while approximately 12 points underwater nationwide, is not collapsing. Neither is his support for funding The Wall.

• FiveThirtyEight’s running average of the President's approval/disapproval numbers reports he’s currently at 41.4 percent approval and 53.3 percent disapproval. For a state by state breakdown, see Morning Consult.


• A Harvard CAPS/Harris online poll (n=1,407) conducted 24–26 December found that 44 percent want to build The Wall while 56 percent do not.

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Sen. Daines and Rep. Gianforte: if President Trump vetoes
a responsible budget, you must vote to override his veto

President Trump has backed himself into a corner from which he cannot retreat gracefully — and his supporters in Congress, fearful of the voters who elected him and them, are refusing to rescue him, and the nation, from his predicament. Consequently, part of our government remains shut down for lack of funding.

This standoff hurts our nation and makes us look like fools to other civilized nations. It must end soon, before more people are hurt, before more economic damage is done. There are plenty of paths to a responsible compromise on this issue.

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Stand down notice

President Trump’s insouciant approach to operational security

My parents’ generation remembers the poster at right. Today, the slogan might be “Lame brains down planes,” or “Tweet squeals expose SEALs.” Operational security matters just as much today as when we were waging war against the Axis three-quarters of a century ago. But the President Roosevelt was no blabbermouth — and President Trump is.

President Trump deserves credit for visiting our military forces in Iraq, and for taking Melania with him. Once among our fighting forces, however, reports Matt Stieb of the Daily Intelligencer, he couldn’t resist posing with a special operations group that should not have been photographed:

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Rep. Bob Brown, helping those who would kill wolves

For Montanans who want to kill wolves, Rep. Bob Brown (R-Thompson Falls, HD-13) is their man in the legislature. So far, he’s requested four bills to make killing wolves easier:

• LC-2007, Allow wolf hunting at night.
• LC-2012, Allow nonresident deer and elk tag to be used to hunt wolves.
• LC-2013, Allow resident bear tag to be used to hunt wolves.
• LC-2014, Allow for additional wolf tags to be purchased online after harvest.

I place hunting wolves at night on the same ethical plane as shining deer. To me, it reeks of poaching, of unsavory characters sneaking around in the dark with the latest technology for finding and killing wolves — or killing Fido by mistake, if he’s loose in the woods after dark (which he shouldn’t be).

These are blood bills. The legislature ought to reject them.

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Merry Christmas!

A carol for Christmas Eve

There’s not much in today’s news that brings joy to one’s heart. Part of our government is not funded and therefore closed. The national Christmas tree was dark until this evening. The steepest Christmas Eve stock market decline in history just occurred. Beyond the bright lights of the season loom the darkening clouds of economic turmoil and political instability.

But this evening and tomorrow, it’s best to set aside our concerns and concentrate on family and friends, to rejoice in the better things in life, and to enjoy the music of the season. Here’s one of my family’s favorites.

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Let’s help Rep. Bachmeier shake this song into Montana law

Billings born Robert Lee “Chan” Romero, now in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, wrote the Hippy Hippy Shake in 1959 during a visit to Los Angeles. He was 17, still a high school student in Billing. The song, “a blistering 1:43 blowout of white-hot hysteria,” was a hit, being recorded by the Beatles among others.

Now Rep. Jacob Bachmeier (D-Havre, HD-28) plans to introduce a bill (LC-2050) — short title, “Provide for a state rock ‘n’ roll song,” — honoring Romero by making Hippy Hippy Shake Montana’s official hard rock song.

I’m for it. Let’s let the world know that under the Big Sky, where there are still big irons on some hips, there’s also a hip citizenry that knows how to shake it to a tune snappier than Git Along little Dogies.

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Government shutdown — the first step in civic suicide

Congress adjourned this evening before resolving the impasse over funding a wall along the Mexican border. Therefore, major departments of the federal government lock their doors. Optimists think a deal can be worked out tomorrow. I’m not so sure. If Trump hangs tough, there are only two possible outcomes:

1. Congress overrides his veto; or
2. Congress gives him what he wants.

Just 34 senators can kill an override. So can 146 representatives. The Republican Party’s staunchest supporters of Trump overwhelmingly support building the wall. In full pitchfork and tar bucket mode, they’re demanding no compromise on the issue. An override of Trump’s veto is less likely than hitting a golf ball over the Atlantic with a tin putter.

Scott Sales’ legislative pay bill

Senate President Scott Sales (R-Bozeman, SD-35), has introduced Senate Bill 80, which has the short title of “Revise method of setting legislator compensation to 5-state survey.” Here’s the heart of the proposal:

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Ryan Zinke’s departure as Sec DOI is no suprise —
his replacement may less flamboyant but no greener

Ryan Zinke never should have been Secretary of the Interior. A congressman just elected to a second term, and a former one-term state senator, whose knowledge of public lands issues was thin, he was hired because he struck up a friendly relationship with President Trump’s son, Donald, Jr., a hunter. Zinke leveraged that into an appointment to the cabinet. Both Donalds liked Zinke’s cocksure, swashbuckling, can do Navy SEAL style. He was perfect for casting as a reality show Sec DOI.

As far as I can tell, Zinke didn’t model himself after former Sec DOIs such as Harold Ickes, Stewart Udall, or Bruce Babbitt. Nor has he become this administration’s Albert Fall. The closest parallel may be James Watt, although Watt always seemed more home at the country club than home on the range.

Zinke was a liability from the gitgo precisely because he was a Navy SEAL. As former Bush 43 speechwriter David Frum observes in Trumpocracy:

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Note to readers

Bob Keenan requests bill to repeal Flathead Basin Commission

Without the Flathead Basin Commission, there would be coal mines in the Canadian North Fork, and probably a lot less action on invasive species than there is today.

The FBC was created after the Flathead River Basin Environmental Impact Study Steering Committee, one of Max Baucus’s finest accomplishments, finished its work in the early 1980s. It provided a trans-jurisdictional perspective on environmental issues in the Flathead River Basin, and because it included citizen members, both a measure of local control and oversight of bureaucracies.

All that ended last year when the Bullock administration, using the excuse of budgetary exigencies, transferred the FBC’s funding to the DNRC. Shortly thereafter, the FBC’s executive director was fired. As the fallout settled, it became clear that the bureaucracy had succeeded in shutting down an organization it never liked, and ridding itself of an executive director who was considered too independent and prone to empire building.

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President Trump’s immigration reality show:
those whom the gods would destroy, they first make proud

That was quite some event at the White House today. Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were ambushed on immigration by President Trump, who turned a standard photo op into a 20-minute demonstration of his resolve to build a wall on the border with Mexico. Pelosi and Schumer, in turn, demonstrated their ability to goad Trump into backing himself into a corner from which there may be no face saving escape. I think the odds of a government shutdown over this issue are better than even.

Watching this was Vice President Pence, who said nothing, but whose expression, noted Ed Kilgore, betrayed his reaction:

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Cuffe leads GOP’s attack on election day voter registration

President Trump held a campaign rally in Bozeman on Saturday, 3 November 2018. Would he have held that rally had voter registration closed the day before? That’s a question Montana’s Republicans would be wise to ponder. Not being able to convert the enthusiasm of the rally into new registrations and votes would have diminished the value of his visit.

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Fern introduces bill taxing fireworks

Eastern Montana conservative Rep. Casey Knudsen (R-Malta, HD-33), and western Montana centrist Rep. Dave Fern (D-Whitefish, HD-5) are teaming up, perhaps unwittingly, to raise revenue for emergency services. It’s a textbook case of both supply and demand, and of the strange bedfellows that politics creates.

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Electrifying news about GNP’s red jammer buses

Many people come to Glacier National Park to enjoy its glaciated mountains, its miles of backcountry trails, and perhaps the opportunity to see a grizzly bear at a safe distance. Others come for the chance to travel the Going to the Sun Road in an antiquated open air bus that’s painted fire engine red.

A road weary red jammer bus hogging parking spaces at Logan Pass in 1998. This is the original version, held together by baling wire, chewing gum, and prayer.

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The state with the smelliest cheeses
also produces evil smelling politics

Wisconsin produced the great progressives Robert M La Follette, Jr., William Proxmire, and Russ Feingold — but it’s also home to Limburger cheese, which announces itself for miles on a hot afternoon in August, and a gerrymandered legislature that, embittered by the defeat of its union busting Republican governor, Scott Walker, just passed legislation to hamstring Walker’s successor, Democrat Tony Evers. Reports the Washington Post’s Phillip Bump in Wisconsin Republicans shield their voters from the horrors of democratic elections:

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Weathered, but still colorful, nightshade berries in December

Saturday roundup: bad bills, blasts, quick counts, & KRHC

Legislators continue requesting bills that are bad for Democracy. Sen. David Howard (R-Park City, SD-29), requested LC-1762, which carries the short title of “Require a super-majority vote to pass tax increases.” Rep. Forest Mandeville thinks that’s a good idea too, as do many who fear that majority rule can lead to higher taxes. On that, they’re right — far, far, right. Majority rule sometimes does result in higher taxes, more government spending, and better things. And Rep. Nancy Ballance (R-Hamilton, HD-87) is back with more bills on raw milk, a public health menace.

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