Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
Should Steve Daines be glad or exasperated that three Republican senators from oil patch states objected to unanimous consent on the North Fork Watershed Protection Act? In case Sens. Pat Toomey (PA), Tom Coburn (OK), and Ted Cruz (TX), didn’t notice, Daines supports the bill.
At The Western Word, Mike Brown wrote:
The three Republican senators undoubtedly objected to the bill because it would make Walsh look good and score him some political points back home, which he needs. Walsh and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) are the top two candidates running for the seat that was previously occupied by Max Baucus. Republicans have a good chance of winning the majority in the Senate.
Daines supports the North Fork Watershed Protection Act. We’ll see how three out-of-state senators messing with this bill plays in Montana. I see a future campaign commercial about this.
My guess? Toomey, Coburn, and Cruz — let’s call them TC2 — want something. A lot of Bakken crude goes east, possibly to refineries in Pennsylvania. Oklahoma and Texas are waypoints and destinations for tar sands crude moving south from Canada through the Keystone XL pipeline (among others). On the surface their conduct makes Daines appear too weak to obtain cooperation from Republican senators. That won’t help him politically.
But there may be a calculation that Daines will beat Walsh in November even if the NFWPA stalls in the senate. If so, then the TC2 maneuver may be a way of extorting something from Walsh and the Democrats.