Treasure State Politics

The TSP team hopes that everyone had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend! We know for sure Senator Tester did.

Senator Tester started his labor day weekend off with an interview at Missoula’s KGVO Radio. When he was finally done answering soft ball questions about football and his farm from the interviewer, he had to answer some tough questions that Montanan’s are concerned about. One person asked “After voting to approve Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, would you vote to approve a third anti-gun rights Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, if you and President Obama are re-elected?” to which Tester replied “gun rights are stronger now than they were when Obama took office.” He also stated that “we take a lot of things into consideration when making a nomination decision.” That is just laughable considering Kagan and Sotomayor are two of the most anti-gun Justices the Court has seen. While serving in the Clinton Administration, Kagan compared the National Rifle Association to the Ku Klux Klan, and Sotomayor has stated that States don’t have to honor the 2nd Amendment. Did you take those facts into consideration when voting for these two, Senator Tester?

Another tough question for “Wall Street Jon” was “local Montana retailers oppose swipe fees. Why do you support them?” The simple answer that Senator Tester avoided, is that by supporting this bill he wasn’t thinking about his constituents that he was hurting. He was thinking about the private jets, hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from big banks, and even partying it up with the Lt. Governor of California.

Another difficult question was “How do we turn the economy around and create jobs?” to which Tester replied “Two ways. We need to get the debt and deficit under control and we need to invest and spend money.” Yes, in the same sentence, Senator Tester said that we need to get the debt under control AND spend more money. I guess since the trillions of dollars spent on bailouts, stimulus, and Obamacare didn’t work out, Senator Tester wants to try again.

While these questions are great, the one that I found most important was “I bet you get pounded by lobbyists over there?” to which Tester replied “No, I don’t. We get lobbied by a lot of folks in Montana and those are the best lobbyists.” This comes just after the Center For Responsive Politics declared Tester the number one recipient of lobbyist cash, out of all 535 members of Congress.  I don’t think citizen lobbying by Montanans got our Senator that ranking.

Senator Tester ended his labor day weekend by flying around Montana on a private plane (good thing he has all that lobbyist money), so that he could hop from one event to the next, to give speeches about his support for working and middle class Montanans. Clad in blue jeans, work boots, and a work shirt, “Hollywood Tester” started labor day off with a speech at a union rally in Missoula, before jet setting over to Great Falls. Straight from a truck to a jet, the self-titled “Dirt Farmer from Big Sandy” has really figured out how to upgrade his means of transportation.

This video is a good compilation of Senator Tester’s Labor Day:

While gun rights is a partisan, divisive issue in much of the United States, here in Montana faith in the Second Amendment is alive and well.  Members of both parties exercise their right to keep and bear arms in accordance with Montana’s long-held hunting, shooting, and “wild west” traditions.  Senator Tester’s recent decision to remove Congressman Rehberg’s pro-gun rights language from the budget bill falls far short of these traditions.

The Boren-Rehberg amendment to the Fiscal Year 2011 bill would have prevented the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from establishing a centralized, active database of gun owners in the southern border states.  By removing the spending bill rider, Senator Tester and his party bosses granted the ATF power to circumvent Congress with regulations aimed at monitoring citizens’ future rifle purchases.  Such action infringes on gun owners’ privacy and hinders their ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

This is not the first time Tester has sided with Washington gun control supporters over Montanans’ best interests.  Let’s not forget that he voted for two anti-gun Supreme Court Justices: Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.  It’s also not the first time Tester has favored bypassing Congress and increasing bureaucratic power; the Montana Farm Bureau recently wrote Tester in opposition to his supporting EPA regulation of CO₂ emissions.  Clearly Senator Tester supports the interests of unelected bureaucrats over those of his constituents back in Montana.