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

28 April 2015

Legislature adjourns, good reads on other blogs

It’s over. The Montana Legislature adjourned sine die early this morning after a last, half-hearted, unsuccessful attempt to pass SB-416, the infrastructure bill so loathed by debt-phobic Republicans in the MT House. Infrastructure improvements now become an issue for the 2016 general election.

Attention now turns to Gov. Bullock, who must decide which bills he will sign, let become law without his signature (a bad practice), or veto.

Does Montana have a de facto three party system? Are there “moderate” Republicans? Montana Cowgirl advances that thesis in her legislative wrap-up post today. I disagree. If we had a true three party system, Democrats and the self-styled “moderate” Responsible Republicans could have formed a coalition and elected a genuinely moderate speaker of the House. That didn’t happen. Instead, the “moderates” voted with their teabagger colleagues on procedural issues, thereby preserving Republican control of the speakership and the composition of committees. There are no moderate Republicans — only teabagger Republicans and conservative Republicans who look moderate compared to their reactionary colleagues.

Riots and the President. At the Maddow Blog, Steve Benen published a transcript of President Obama’s remarks on the race riots in Baltimore. It’s worth reading. I just wish he would stop bashing the news media.

Conservative commentators cudgel Elizabeth Warren. She rightly opposes the Trans Pacific Partnership, so President Obama and the free trade zealots on the red side of the Democratic Party are taking pot shots at her. At Esquire, Charles Pierce uncapped his pungent pen to write a rebuttal that ought to be required reading for every Blue Dog and Blue Dog wannabe.