Another tough week for Congressman Dennis Rehberg

March 16, 2012

Congressman Dennis Rehberg was nowhere to be seen in Montana, and yet he still managed to have another rough week…

Republican House candidate trashes Rehberg’s land-grab bill

Steve Daines, the leading Republican candidate for Dennis Rehberg’s current seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, joined a chorus of Montanans opposing H.R. 1505, Rehberg’s controversial federal land-grab bill.

Rehberg’s irresponsible bill gives one federal department unprecedented control over public lands within 100 miles of Montana’s northern border, superseding at least 36 existing laws.

On Tuesday’s Voices of Montana radio show, Daines said of Rehberg’s bill:

“When I start seeing those things, I realize we’ve got people back in Washington that don’t understand the importance here of states’ rights. We don’t need to just have a bunch of federal bureaucrats and federal authorities here usurping the rights and the authorities we have here in the state of Montana.”

 Subdividing “doesn’t count as ranching”

Jon Tester spoke Saturday to a record crowd of 1,100 about the need to re-elect a “Montana farmer with Montana values” to the U.S. Senate.  He highlighted Dennis Rehberg’s record of irresponsible decisions, like his five votes to raise his own pay in Congress and his lawsuit against Billings firefighters.

“You’ll hear Dennis Rehberg say, ‘I am a fifth-generation rancher,’” Tester said during the annual Mansfield-Metcalf event in Helena. “Remind him that subdividing land – without any livestock – doesn’t count as ranching.”

Rehberg’s “toe-sucking” supporter

Political blogger Montana Cowgirl on Tuesday broke this story about one of Rehberg’s more questionable supporters.   Conservative pollster Dick Morris sent this fundraising letter to Montana conservatives, saying Dennis Rehberg will “make us all proud.”

Really?  Remember Dick Morris?  He made national news in 1996 for what the Washington Post calls a “toe-sucking relationship” with a prostitute.  More recently, Rehberg’s friend Dick Morris called Montana conservatives “crazies” on FOX News.

Where is Dennis Rehberg, anyway?

 Speaking of Rehberg — Where is he?  The U.S. House of Representatives has been on break this week, but the Congressman has disappeared.

Since this week is Sunshine Week, a week promoting transparency in government as Jon Tester has done, we reviewed Rehberg’s public schedule—if that’s what you call it.  We discovered that not counting press interviews and political events, Dennis Rehberg has attended only four public events in Montana this entire year.

Compare this to the more than 60 public events Jon Tester has attended across Montana.  In fact, he’s traveling across eastern Montana today.

We put together some maps to compare and contrast Rehberg’s and Tester’s outreach this year.

Whatever happens next week, we’ll be watching.