Tagged: Dave Lewis

Posted: March 18, 2013 at 9:50 pm

ALEC Legislator Pushes Idea That Has Already Failed 22 Times

Wendy Warburton should not be conducting political campaigns with taxpayer dollars. — Wendy Warburton, R-ALEC

by Cowgirl

If you want to appreciate the failure that marks GOP ideas, consider the latest from Wendy Warburton. This TEA Party Republican has brought back a bill to legalize discrimination in insurance pricing that has previous failed to pass no fewer than 22 times.

This will be the 23rd attempt. What’s new this year is that the insurance industry now has the audacity to get a woman sponsor the discrimination bill–and of course the growing influence of ALEC. ALEC junketer Wendy Warburton is carrying the bill at the behest of Big Insurance – the industry that spent more than any other on lobbying during the last legislative session. Continue reading →

Posted: February 19, 2013 at 9:18 pm

Ten Montana Senators Vote to Keep Prison Time for Gay People

by Cowgirl

On Tuesday, the Montana Senate voted, finally, to erase our “anti-sodomy law” which makes it an imprisonable crime to be gay. Although invalidated by our state supreme court in 1997, the law has remained on our books because Republicans have always refused to go along with efforts to scrap it.

But yesterday, SB 107, a measure to strike the offensive language from our statutes finally passed the senate. That said, the vote was far from unanimous. Ten Republicans voted no. They are:

Nutwatch is keeping an eye on Dave Lewis. — **Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena (sponsor of bill to withdraw U.S. from the UN)**

Yep, this is the Obama bullet ridden outhouse guy. — **Sen. Scott Boulanger R-Darby (with infamous bullet-ridden Obama outhouse.)**

**Sen. Dee Brown R-Hungry Horse (Pictured rallying to ‘save’ a plastic statue of Jesus.)**

Verdell Jackson is from Kalispell — **Sen. Verdell Jackson R-Kalispell (Says keeping this law on the books “protects him from getting propositioned on the street.”**

Yikes — **Sen. Rick Ripley R-Wolf Creek**

Senator John Brenden's got federal cash, poor people should F*** off. — **Sen. John Brenden R-Scobey (yep, he’s the legislature’s largest recipient of federal farm subsidies, but opposes Medicaid expansion for poor.)**

Matthew Rosendale wants gay people imprisoned. — **Sen. Matthew Rosendale R-Glendive**

Bigotry doesn't become him. — **Sen. Fred Thomas R-Stevensville, Bitterrooter**

He's the dog killer. — **Sen. Roger Webb, R-Billings (This guy was convicted of beating and shooting his neighbors’s pets Katie and Alli, both black labs.)**

Posted: January 16, 2013 at 8:56 pm

Leaked Emails Show Civil War in Montana GOP

The big news today, if it is news at all, is that Republicans in Montana are at war with each other.

Some juicy emails [PDF] were published by the Great Falls Tribune Wednesday, showing the machinations of rightwing Republicans such as Jeff Essmann and Art Wittich as they try to vanquish the moderates, led by ousted Senate President Jim Peterson. Presumably, these missives were leaked by one of the moderate legislators in the scrum, who thought it would be good to publicize the schism.

There are some hilarious exchanges, and the article in the Trib, by John Adams, is required reading for anyone interested in Montana Politics. It’s fun to observe the various leaders, or aspiring leaders, openly agitating against the opponent faction.

But it is also quite disturbing. For the emails reveal that the objective of Tea Party Republicanism is to control all branches of Government, with absolute power, in its entirety. Here is an excerpt from a September 2012 e-mail by Essmann to his ultra-conservative cohorts (the subject line of the email is “Agenda Control”) about how a redistricting of legislative seats will make the ultimate goal achievable:

Jon Bennion was able to draw a map with 63 safe Republican seats. If we can implement the long term strategy we will be in a position to actually elect a majority of conservatives in both bodies, adopt conservative legislation and have a court that will uphold it.

And here is one from Art Wittich, describing efforts to get rid of moderates in GOP primaries:

We must help the purge along. Hopefully, a new phoenix will rise from the ashes.

Sadly, these writings and many of the other emails that were disclosed to the Tribune reveal an almost jihadist mentality at work. The right wing of the GOP views itself as an historic movement seeking a distant, ultimate triumph in which the opposition will be vanquished and the right-wing view of the world will be imposed, imposed upon all Montanans even if a majority of the voters don’t want it.

How can this type of thinking possibly be the basis for a successful political movement? It can’t, which is why Republicans are currently circling down the toilet nationally. America has a two-party system and regardless of what party you are in, to be taken seriously and help the greater good you must work with the opposition, and accept the fact that your opponents are not enemies, but simply a counterbalance representing the viewpoints of many.

Posted: November 13, 2012 at 5:56 am

GOP: “We can’t win, so let’s change the rules”

As usual, Republicans are calling for the rules of a game to be changed, because Democrats play the game better and play it smarter.

Too stupid to know how to organize a get-out-the-vote effort like Democrats with technology, sophistication and smarts, Republicans in Montana (and nationally) are now complaining about the fact that “too many people were voting.

Tom McGilvray, one of the Tea Party’s top imbeciles in Montana, has decided that the sheer numbers of voters in Billings presented a serious problem for Republicans. He is already calling for an end to election day registration and a shrinking of early vote options.

This will be a first order of business for the new legislature and governor, but the GOP will use the occasion–the long lines in certain major cities–to argue that liberalized voting rules have caused the problem. The GOP thinks, perhaps mistakenly, that if it’s harder to vote, they will gain an advantage. They will use this lie to try to get support for rolling back early voting, same day registration, etc.

In fact, what needs to happen is the devotion of more resources to county election offices, sufficient manpower and equipment so that things work smoothly and efficiently on election day. People in Montana are voting in some of the highest numbers in the state’s history. They are engaged, and the GOP doesn’t like that. Republicans did better when more voters were apathetic, and so they want to return to those glory days.

Early voting must remain; vote by mail must increase; and same day registration must remain, because it is an important way of allowing people to vote when they have moved addresses but there’s a glitch in the system, for whatever reason, that hasn’t recorded it properly. In the past, these folks have been turned away. Now with same day registration, they can vote.

An additional idea is to limit the number of referenda that the Montana legislature can submit. The ballot was too long and took people too long to fill out. That’s because the GOP, unable to get past Schweitzer’s veto branding iron, bypassed the Governor with stupid ballot initiatives on things that don’t even affect our state like illegal immigration.

Truth is, Republicans lost the two big statewide races for three basic reasons, which are 1) they had inferior statewide candidates, 2) the Republican brand is in the toilet, thanks in large part to the Tea Party, and 3) they gave away an average of 5 points to the libertarian candidate. Nothing to do with voting, whether early, late or often.

And you can already see the finessing and smoothtalking starting up from GOP lawmakers. Republicans are now saying that they were “unable to work with Schweitzer,” citing as evidence his 80 vetoes of their insane bills, and saying that they “look forward” to having a “working relationship” with the new governor. Had Schweitzer signed their election bills, tens of thousands of Montanans would have waited many more hours on interminable lines to vote, and would then have been turned away. The GOP believes this would have imparted a conservative tilt to the final vote tally.

So let’s not fall for the GOP nonsense. Even Republican state senator Dave Lewis admitted in the press that the reason Schweitzer had to veto 80 GOP bills is that they were awful pieces of legislation.

Posted: September 26, 2012 at 12:11 pm

Jent Miffed

Montana state Senator Larry Jent is miffed at me because I drew attention to his anti-birth control vote in the legislature last week. On Jent’s Facebook page he claims that the GOP bill he’s supporting

“did not even mention contraception…It seems that cowgirls lie as well as Karl Rove”

Here’s the screenshot:

In fact, the bill gives the legislature specific authority over what’s covered or not in state worker health plans. The entire discussion in committee made this clear. In this video, you can hear the committee staffer specifically assuring the legislators that yes, this would give them the authority to remove:

“contraception other things that could be very controversial..like..I don’t know, health and wellness for women.”

We will give Mr. Jent the benefit of the doubt and assume that he simply misunderstood the bill, and did not know what he was truly voting for. A general rule of thumb for Democrats in the upcoming legislature should be: when wing-nuts propose something, it is most likely a bill that is designed to advance right-wing ideology, not make things better for Montana citizens. The bill in this case was proposed by Dave Lewis. While not a wing-nut in every sense, on abortion and birth control he is way out there (right, Dave?).

Posted: May 6, 2012 at 9:45 pm

GOP Senator: Democratic Operatives, Not Ken Miller, are Behind Latest Ad

Dave Lewis, GOP state senator and big Ken Miller supporter, has declared a belief that the 30 second web ad contrasting Ken Miller and Rick Hill on family values (entitled “Abuse and Adultery”) has been planted by democratic party operatives. Lewis wrote:

Come on guys. There may be some smart Democrat operatives, not a contradiction in terms, who wanted to fire an early volley. Do it now and blame it on primary politics. We play rough here. Suspect everyone. Fun month ahead.

Lewis made the claim last week, on this blog, but stated no basis for it except to say that democratic operatives are “talented” and thus may have created the ad, the implication being that GOP operatives are not talented. Here’s the ad:

Doth Lewis, a Miller surrogate, protest too loudly?

Let’s examine his theory.
First, the woman behind the ad, Nancy Davis, has been active against Hill before, but not in favor of Miller. And she has a large conservative following on Facebook, counting among her friends many GOP legislators and Tea Party idiots.

Furthermore, if Lewis’s premise is correct that Democrats want to elevate Miller at Hill’s expense (which I don’t believe is correct; Hill is a lame candidate, insider, part of the problem, and thus a good horse for dems to run against) this would not be the way to do it since this video risks backfiring on Ken Miller. Negative stuff like this is dynamite and can explode in the hand of the person lighting it.

And finally, not only has Miller made no effort at all to denounce the video act in a way that would indicate he isn’t connected with it, he actually has been aping it.

Hilariously, in the last week he’s referred to himself at least twice as a”Christian”, “family man” and “small businessman” in the same breath, and to Rick Hill as a “lobbyist”, “insurance” executive” and “congressman,” comparative language taken directly from the ad. Miller clearly likes the action.

A tipster informed me today that Miller contrasted himself to Hill using these terms at a recent debate. And a new video on Miller’s website similarly uses the same message points, with Miller describing himself as a Christian and a family man (note: Miller today removed that video, for some reason). And below is a “straw poll” from Miller’s own website. We will ignore for the moment the sad fact that Miller could only muster 61% in a vote that takes place on his own website; what’s interesting is, again, the way he messages himself against Hill:

Also, there’s something about the narrator’s voice (might it be Davis herself?) that strikes me as that of someone who watches lots of Foxnews and is an angry Tea gal (or maybe that’s just my imagination).

So I’d say its very unlikely that Democrats are behind this lovely piece of political theater. Some GOP “operative” does indeed have some minimal talent.

I’m told that all of the GOP candidates are in the process of buying TV time now. We will see what these ads look like, and then revisit this subject.

Posted: April 12, 2012 at 8:50 pm

Dave Lewis throws Martz, Hill and Himself Under the Bus

In recent times we’ve seen Republicans fall into a circular firing squad.

When Schweitzer was meeting with the Republican leaders last session, they told him that Rick Hill had made a mess of the Work Comp system when he was in charge of it during the 1990s. Threw him under the bus. Neil Livingstone made the same point about Hill a few weeks ago, and Ken Miller has taken on Hill for having spent most of the last twenty years in Palm Desert, California, rather than Montana. And of course Corey Stapleton’s campaign has already chimed in with the insinuation that Hill has “too many Skeletons in the closet” to become Governor.

Yesterday it continued. State Senator Dave Lewis, a regular Cowgirl blog commenter, admitted that Montana’s current Pension woes, which Schweitzer is now trying to fix, are due largely to his own bill, HB 294, which he carried in 2001 on behalf of Judy Martz and her chief economic policy guru, Rick Hill. This bill, ordered by the Martz administration as a supposed long-term solution to avoiding an insolvent state pension fund, gave automatic increases (3% a year), to state workers. It assumed that the stock market would go up forever.

Lewis gave an interview in which he said that “in forty years of government, HB 294 was the worst mistake I ever made.” Some kudos to Dave Lewis for his honesty; this type of confession is rarely heard in politics.

The more important point is that Lewis’s statement closes the book on a very substantial inquiry as to the ineptitude of the Judy Martz administration. We now have a confession entered into the record, conclusive proof that the Republican administrations of the last 20 years fucked things up, and Schweitzer has had to spend seven years trying to repair the damage.

Posted: April 11, 2012 at 10:35 pm

Cowgirl Sneak Preview: The GOP Agenda for 2013

A Madison County Commissioner is working now to bring Montanans up to speed on the 2013 policy agenda of the Montana GOP. Commissioner Dan Happel (pictured) is spreading the word about what are likely to be some of the major policy initiatives of a GOP administration/legislature next year. These are: legalizing dog and cockfighting, and stopping a government plot that would force all Montanans to relocate to Seattle (or somewhere like it.)

Happel is known for getting the word out in advance about the GOP agenda. He was the man who first brought us the news that Republicans had passed birther and gold standard resolutions at their party platform convention in June of 2010. These went on to become cornerstones of the GOP legislative agenda, so Happel is a reliable source.

Happel has been bringing in policy experts to speak to local government boards and organizations about these important policies. Let’s take a look at the proposals.

First on the agenda, a most important item. Montana must stop a plot that Happel has discovered–before it destroys the constitution and the middle class. The plot, known as Agenda 21, is being carried out by “oligarchic elite” (AKA government employees), who use a tactic called “public process” which, Happel explains, was “invented in Stalin’s Russia to control the people.”

Sen. Dave Lewis (R-Helena) had a resolution along these lines that was unsuccessful in 2011. However, that legislature didn’t have the information that Happel now provides.

Basically, if the legislature doesn’t act, Montanans are going to be force-relocated to somewhere like Seattle where we will be compelled to live “like sardines” and our cars will be taken away. Happel told the Ravalli County Planning board that they needed to choose between the United Nations Charter (AKA the Evil Seattle Plot) and the Declaration of Independence.

No vote was taken at the time. Although, as the Bitterroot Star reports, the Planing Board members did “pass the hat” to collect money to pay to Happel for this valuable information. Also at the meeting, President Obama was called a “critter,” although we don’t know what legislative action may be proposed along these lines. One board member resigned on the spot.

The next potential policy priority will be presented to local farmers and ranchers at a forum tomorrow (Friday April 13) hosted by “The Madison and Jefferson County Commissioners,” according to a mailer that went out about the event. The postage and mailing of the meeting were noted to be “compliments” of your tax dollars.

This time, the speaker is a proponent of legalization of dog and cock fighting. Forget about Michael Vick. Dog fighting, says featured expert Jim Beers, should be legal and regulated. Beers also explains that cock fighting has been vilified, but in reality, those who enjoy it are among “the finest individuals and parents and citizens” Jim has ever known. Beers says:

…the evening at a cockfight (on every continent in the world for centuries and in places like Asia and tropical jungles for eons) are links to an ancestral past that if claimed by today’s Native American in the US would be tolerated in a New York second and even given land set-asides…

Beers says objections to cock-fighting are “un-American,” and he believes that the laws against cock-fighting must be overturned. Since the event invite touts wolves as among the topics, perhaps the legislative package will also include a bill set up a wolf-fighting league. (Jobs!) The speaker will hit the Madison County TEA Party the next day so word is really getting about about this. The meeting also appeared on the Montana Association of Counties calendar, unless this is a third, Helena stop for the speaking tour. The MaCo announcement says contact Happel for more info.

Not everyone will agree with such an agenda. An email about the happenings has been circulated locally that says as much. According to the the message, when a local tax-payer inquired about the use of his tax dollars for such a purpose, Madison County Commissioner Dave Schulz reportedly said he “had no knowledge of why or how this was done.”

What is known is that when these items sail through a GOP legislature, Happel expects Rick Hill to be “friendly to the cause.” Happel explains that without Hill’s “tacit support” the gold standard and birther resolutions at the last GOP convention never would have passed. Republicans aim to take over the Governor’s seat and retain both houses of the legislature.