..at the Capitol yesterday, in response to a newly released document (available at Intelligent Discontent) that rates every legislator according to how conservative he or she is.

The document comes from Roger Koopman, the former legislator from Bozeman, who has, in the past, organized primary challenges against moderate Republican legislators who he believes are not conservative enough. Yesterday, Koopman figured he’d try to scare the moderate Rs in the legislature by giving them liberal ratings, and so guys like Jim Peterson, the Senate President, got dinged as a “liberal” on Koopman’s rating scale, according to Peterson’s votes on a number of bills that serve as a collective litmus test for Koopman’s crazy group, Conservative Alliance of Montana.

Of course, Koopman has been sort of quiet ever since it was revealed that he was using state government resources, illegally, to earn himself a tidy personal income. (At the time he got busted, he was ranting about the need for “less government”).

The added problem for Koopman and his group right now is that the Tea Party is acting like a bunch of loons and has become a state-wide joke, so I doubt anyone is taking a person seriously who is advocating for Republicans to be as far to the right as possible.  But if Koopman wants to put more Tea Partiers on the ballot and fewer moderate Republicans, amen. It would quickly reduce the Republicans’ majority.