Political mud from American Dream Montana
Before examining American Dream Montana’s smear of Joe Brenneman, ask yourself this: have you ever met a farmer or rancher who thought property rights are silly?
ADM thinks you have. That’s why it ran one of the dirtiest political advertisements in recent years in the 28 September 2010 edition of Kalispell’s Daily InterLake newspaper. The ad alleges that Brenneman, a Flathead County Commissioner and dairy farmer testified before the Montana Legislature that “property rights are ‘silly.’”
Below the word, “silly,” is a citation, “Said before the Montana Senate Local Government Committee 3/29/07.” You are invited to conclude that the State of Montana has verified the accuracy of ADM's claim (no small irony given ADM’s general antipathy toward government). It’s the same as creating the impression that a slab of undocumented beef of dubious quality has a USDA stamp of approval. But despite the apparent official imprimatur, the allegation is a baldfaced lie. Brenneman did not say that property rights are silly. He said that the bill against which he was testifying, HB-590, was silly:
This bill is a silly bill, ill conceived, poorly written. It’s a solution looking for... [a problem, but] ...there’s no problem [that] needs to be fixed.
Don’t take my word for it. Montana’s legislature makes audio recordings of all committee meetings, recordings that are published online. Listen to Brenneman for yourself (warning: the audio is a bit loud):
Which brings us back to my opening question: have you ever met a farmer or rancher who thought property rights are silly?
Neither have I. In fact, I’ve never met, indeed cannot imagine, a farmer or rancher who would think, let alone say, such a thing. Westerners don’t think that way. Not even when drunk. It’s just not in their DNA. If you believe that a dairy farmer thinks property rights are silly, you’ll believe damned near anything.
And HB-590? It died in committee in the Senate on a lopsided vote (9-2 against, if memory serves me correctly) despite having passed the House 52-47. ADM’s big kahuna, Russ Crowder, no friend of Brenneman or planning, testified in support of the bill in both chambers, as did Charles Lapp and Rick Breckenridge (former treasurer for HD-4 Republican candidate Derek Skees). Dick Skees, Derek’s father, testified for HB-590 at the House judiciary committee’s hearing.
Draw your own conclusions.