Billings Blog

Sen. Jon Tester’s office has set up a website for Montanans who want Haiti information.

Denny Rehberg’s recent spending votes:

1. He voted against reinstating PAYGO, which requires Congress to raise taxes or cut spending elsewhere to offset any new spending.

2. He voted against creating a budget deficit commission.

3. He voted against raising the public debt limit, saying that Congress should instead balance the budget.

So Rehberg opposes two measures that might actually help reduce deficits, then votes against a measure that allows us to pay the debts we are running up because of budget deficits. I think there’s a word for that: insane.

I hear a lot on talk radio that I disagree with but not too much that offends me. Now I have been offended twice in two weeks. Last week it was Limbaugh saying that Obama’s State of the Union message could have come from Fidel Castro (I missed his “retard” rant this week).  If speech alone can be treason, then that hit awfully close. Thursday it was Glenn Beck, mocking Obama’s appearance at a prayer breakfast.

Turns out that what Obama was saying wasn’t part of an actual prayer, which makes Beck’s remarks slightly less evil, I suppose. It wa’s still pretty damn low. How can you mock a man for going somewhere to pray?

It’s despicable. Disloyal. Un-American. Shameful. Why do local radio stations tolerate it?

Electric City Weblog, which has become the go-to site for conservative politics in the Montana blogosphere, is undergoing a redesign. It looks like a bit of a muddle to me, but maybe that will work itself out (or I will just get used to it).

Politics in the Pub, a new nonpartisan political group in Billings, will hold its first meeting (and first glasses) on Feb. 15 at Hooligan’s. Cool.

I thought I understood in today’s Gazette that Ed Kemmick’s City Lights blog is back up, but I guess I am too dumb to find it on the Gazoo’s new and degraded web site. Send me a link if you find it.

Speaking of dumb, this letter in today’s Gazette says “people don’t want to listen to ‘agenda-driven programming’ that is hateful. Just look at Rush Limbaugh and Fox News ‘chew up’ the competition.”

This just three days after Limbaugh said the State of the Union speech could have been delivered by Fidel Castro. That’s not agenda-driven? That’s not hateful?

The reference below wasn’t the only bizarre bit to come out of Dennis Miller this week. He also cited this poll as evidence that Congress should give up on passing a health care bill. The poll shows that an impressive 58 percent of Americans “generally oppose” the Senate and House bills already passed. But it also shows that an even more impressive 78 percent think Congress should pass a bill of some kind. A few thoughts:

1. It would be interesting to know what “generally oppose” means. Does it mean the bills should be stronger? Does it mean the bills would be acceptable without the Nebraska compromise and other sweeteners? Does it mean that an acceptable bill is likely to emerge from conference?

2. Suppose I am a corrupt congressman (but I repeat myself) with no interest in health care but a powerful interest in getting re-elected. I don’t want to vote for the existing bills, but I also want to vote for some bill. But if one of the existing bills doesn’t pass, then the chance of getting through a new bill seems minuscule. So do I vote for one of the bills on the table and risk offending 58 percent of my constituents, hoping to fix things later, or do I watch the whole process go down in flames and risk offending 78 percent?

I think that’s a pretty easy call.

I was working on year-end reports and printing W-2s for Outpost employees as I listened to the State of the Union speech. That left me in no mood to feel kindly toward the federal government, but I thought it was a pretty good speech anyway.

Apparently, the airborne talkers thought so, too. At least they felt threatened enough by it to open all barrels and keep them firing all day long Thursday. Not even a, “Well, the man can read a teleprompter” sort of crack. Every single sentence was up for attack.

Almost the first words out of Limbaugh’s mouth were that the speech could have been given by Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro. So we’re in the middle of two wars, and the commander in chief is making his constitutionally required report to Congress, and the nation’s leading talk-show host puts the president squarely in the enemy camp. Once again, Limbaugh shames his party.

I switched over to Fred Thompson, where one of those perfectly cloned, pre-programmed, rubber-stamp guest hosts was filling in. A caller was telling him that the speech sounded like it could have come from Hugo Chavez. The host didn’t even have to glance at his talking points before enthusiastically agreeing.

Hannity was shouting down anyone who tried to defend Obama, or who even just said Hannity should give the guy a break. In his opening sentences, Glenn Beck called Obama both a liar and a revolutionary. At least Beck has an excuse: He’s crazy.

Even after the daylong assault, I still thought it was a pretty good speech. And I liked Obama even better after his Q and A on Friday with House Republicans, especially his point that Republicans back themselves into a corner when they demonize the opposition.

He’s right, of course, and that’s one reason why I have long suspected that Hannity may secretly be on the take from the Obama administration. Obama can just ignore the rants of Limbaugh and Hannity since they oppose him 100 percent of the time and always will, no matter what he does.

It’s tougher for Republicans. Voters keep saying they are sick of partisan infighting, but how can Republicans reach across the aisle to work with someone they have spent the last year branding as an arrogant Marxist with fascistic tendencies and a deep desire to destroy America? Isn’t there even one Republican who will stand up to the right-wing crazies?

But the wackiest take was from Dennis Miller. When a caller took him to task for being too hard on the president, he defended himself by saying he had given the guy eight or nine months, but wrote Obama off after he began making fun of “yokels.” My memory isn’t what it used to be, but I have absolutely no recollection of Obama ever doing any such thing. Can anybody help me out? All I can think of was the “clinging to guns and religion” comment, which, of course, came well before the election and which, in any case, was not meant as a joke.

Only Chris Matthews came close to drawing as much heat as Obama did on Thursday. He got beat up for his weird post-speech comment that he had forgotten for an hour that Obama was black. It was a brain-dead thing to say, but it also was Chris Matthews. Why bother with it? Especially since it’s almost 100 percent certain that Matthews meant not harm; he was just being dumb.

But even Matthews could never be this dumb.

At long last, Rush Limbaugh and I agree on something (h/t Andrew Sullivan).