Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James R. Conner.

 

28 August 2013

GOP website spoofs Democrat Lewis

lew_iss

Former Sen. Max Baucus staffer John Lewis just announced he’s seeking the Democratic nomination for Montana’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. If he has a campaign website, I can’t find it.

But I can find http://johnlewis4congress.com/, the spoof site put up by the Republican National Congressional Committee. It’s the first site that comes up on Google if you enter a search term containing Lewis’ name, Montana, and house or Congress.

This is not a sure-footed start for Lewis.

And while I welcome him to the race — finally, Democrats have a live body seeking the office — I’m not sure I welcome the “Don’t worry, I’m not a kiss-up to Eastern liberals Democrat” image he’s presenting. The Montana Street Fighter blog reported:

Aaron Murphy, a spokesperson for Lewis said the following, “John is moving forward because we need more bridge-builders in Congress. Montanans are asking John to be a candidate because we need more independent-minded public servants committed to good-paying jobs and working together to find solutions — like looking after our families and neighbors, and living within our means.”

Murphy, the former communications director-press secretary-chief propagandist for Jon Tester, and former television producer, now works at Hilltop Solutions, a political consulting firm.

When a former Baucus operative extolls bridge building, I think of Baucus’ misadventure on health care in which he wasted months trying to cut a deal with Republicans, one of the reasons health care legislation wasn’t passed before Sen. Ted Kennedy died and was replaced by a Republican, thus costing the Democrats a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.

Nor can I forget that it was Baucus who waged a holy war against a single-payer health care system, and had the senate’s sergeant-at-arms forcibly remove single-payer supporting physicians from a senate hearing on health care.

And when that former Baucus staffer extolls independent minded public servants, I think of Democrats who voted for George W. Bush’s tax cuts, of Republican-for-a-day senators like Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, Blanche Lincoln, and Zell Miller, the Blue Dogs and dirty dogs of the Democratic Party.

Now, it’s possible Lewis’ platform contains Democratic planks on which he stands instead of straddles. That’s why I tried to find his campaign website, searching Google with various search terms, checking the website of Montana’s Democratic Party (nada), reviewing news stories to see if I missed a link.

But all I could find was the GOP’s spoof site. Go ahead and visit it, but don’t pull out your credit card.