Montana & 60 Minutes

I hope you were watching 60 Minutes this evening. The segment with Montana’s Governor, Brian Sweitzer was a true picture of the man. I first met him 5-6 years ago when he was running for the Senate against Conrad Burns. Burns was a County Commissioner and was well known in Montana Ag circles as a radio broadcaster and auctioneer. He promised to serve no more that two terms and is currently running for his fourth. He is a solid Republican and can be expected to vote the party line without fail. We are probably lucky that Brian lost that one since we now have him in an office where he might do the best for our State. He is in his early 40’’s and we can expect him to seek other offices later. The talk with Lesley Stahl about some movement to run for President is a bit premature. The job of getting diesel fuel from coal is a big challenge with the opposition of many environmentalists in the State, but it may get done anyway. Annie and Bill will be somewhat distressed I suspect since much of the coal they are talking about is not far from where they live. Mining there would mean big growth for some of the smaller communities in the area such as Ashland.

Some may remember the fall I had last year resulting in significant facial bruising and involving a trip to the Emergency Room at the Billings Clinic. That happened when I was leaving a home after visiting with Sweitzer just before the election. I had not been in that place before and an unexpected step cause me to trip. It may have been a Democratic function, but I was completely sober. The Republican Lt. Govenor, John Bohlinger, is a long time friend. He and his wife, Bette, operated a women’s clothing store in Billings for many years. She died after the first of the year from Leukemia. So John and I have that in common as well.

Anyway. I was happy to see our fledgling governor get some national attention.