In an article attempting to criticize the National Republican Senatorial Committee, The Missoula Independent ends up ripping Democratic US Senate candidate John Walsh (D-MT).
“In some ways, Walsh is a mudslinger’s dream,” writes the Indy columnist, adding, “is this the best Republicans can do attacking Walsh?”
From the Indy:
Before he was chosen to replace Max Baucus, Walsh had no experience in legislative politics at the state or federal level. He served as lieutenant governor for just more than a year. Before Bullock made him a member of the world’s greatest deliberative body, Walsh spent pretty much his entire adult life in the Montana Army National Guard, and his record there was not stellar. If Walsh is a puppet, then the president has been operating him with his off hand.
Columnist Dan Brooks says the Army IG ethics ruling against Walsh is “not very exciting.” Brooks adds:
Still, it’s a much stickier hunk of mud than the observation that he belongs to the same party as the president.
So, too, was the 2011 federal audit that found the Montana Department of Military Affairs was carelessly managing its relationships with government contractors. The department did not have a system in place to track the status of contracts; it couldn’t even say how many contractors it had engaged. Brigadier General Walsh was at the center of that fiasco, but “Pulling the Strings” only briefly mentions it amid a 10-second series of decontextualized headlines.
Meanwhile, Republican US Senate candidate Steve Daines (R-MT) has signed on to the “Stop This Overreaching Presidency” effort. Lefty Rachel Maddow’s bloggers at MSNBC aren’t happy.
The Stop This Overreaching Presidency (STOP) measure, introduced by Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.), now has 104 co-sponsors, including Senate GOP hopeful Reps. Jack Kingston (Ga.), James Lankford (Okla.), Steve Stockman (Texas), Paul Broun (Ga.), Steve Daines (Mont.) and Phil Gingrey (Ga.).
Here’s what Rep. Tom Price told The Hill:
In an interview with The Hill, Rice explained the STOP resolution is aimed at reversing Obama’s delay of the employer mandate, enactment of the Dream Act, extension of “substandard” health insurance plans and ending work requirements for welfare.
Check out video of his remarks below. Note- he mentions wanting to do something “short of impeachment.” I find that very interesting, especially after my discussion with Dr. Ben Carson earlier this week. We talked about the unwillingness of Congress to hold the president accountable out of fear of being called “racists.”
While Daines is considered to be the favorite, with most analysts predicting the vote to go Republican- after 2012- conservatives aren’t taking the US Senate race for granted in Montana.
As CNBC reports:
A new federal fundraising committee led by Singer—Friends for an American Majority—counts many prominent conservative hedge funders as donors. They include $21 billion Paulson & Co. founder John Paulson; $9 billion Maverick Capital founder Lee Ainslie; $98 billion AQR Capital Management head Cliff Asness; $17 billion Citadel founder Ken Griffin; hedge fund pioneer Michael Steinhardt; and various employees of Singer’s $24 billion Elliott Management.
Other notable supporters, according to public filings, are Vincent and Linda McMahon of professional wrestling and Connecticut political fame; billionaire businessman Leonard Blavatnik; brokerage head Charles Schwab; real estate developer Harlan Crow; and economist Marie-Josée Kravis, wife of $94 billion KKR co-founder Henry Kravis.
Together, they’ve contributed $579,800 to the nascent political group and supported Republican Senate hopefuls Tom Cotton in Arkansas, Steve Daines in Montana and Dan Sullivan in Alaska, according to the disclosures. The GOP is likely to control both houses of Congress if it can gain six more seats in the Senate this fall; elections in Arkansas, Montana and Alaska are all tight.