The Montana Legislature has not brought us much in terms of wisdom and enlightenment, but so far, it has been…entertaining.  Here are some highlighted stupid quotations said during the business of making Montana law.  Vote for your favorite or add your own in the comments.

1-Keith Regier – (R-Outer Space) On the floor of the House of Representatives, compares Montana women to cattle when arguing for his bill to have the government decide when to force women to bear children.

“Ranchers refer to cows as either preg-tested or open.  Preg-tested cows bring a higher price than open cows.”

Yep, and if you rape a woman you owe her dad 50 pieces of silver.  That’s in the Bible.  You believe women are property.  We get it.  You can’t fix stupid.

You can hear Rep. Regier utter these brilliant words to support his backdoor attempt to take away women’s privacy rights during the House Floor Session on 1/20/2011 Listen Watch, and in the House Judiciary committee on 1/11/2011 Listen.

2-Jason Priest (R-Red Lodge)

“I didn’t want to make changes to someone else’s health care without it being the same as mine.”

These impressive words exited Priest’s mouth to explain why he accepted the Cadillac government health care plan for state legislators, even though he is sponsoring bills to undo “health care reform.”

3-Senator Anders Blewett (D-Great Falls), in tears, speaking about Senator Shockley’s resignation as the chair of the Senate Judiciary committee:

“I don’t think anybody who is here is an angel,” said Sen. Anders Blewett, D-Great Falls. “We’re taking on some important public policy. I think that each of us is probably a hypocrite in some way or another. “

Stupid speaks for itself.  State Sen. Jim Shockley, ticketed last week for having an open container of alcohol in his car,  was correct when he said it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to chair the panel as it dealt with numerous bills to crack down on drunken driving in the state.

4 – Billings Representative Elsie Arntzen wants to wants to extend unemployment benefits for victims of domestic violence to teachers.  Nothing stupid there, rather, Artzen’s bill is logical and compassionate.  The stupid comes from Bob Vogel, swank lobbyist for the Montana School Board’s Association, which says that allowing teachers the same benefits as others when they are victims of domestic violence:

“isn’t a good idea.” 

You know what isn’t a good idea?   Believing that the MTSBA are advocates for education.