Eighteen months ago the country was despondent over the worst President in history, a Republican, not to mention 16 years of a Republican Congress.  Now the geniuses in the White House have done such a splendid job that if you are running for office this fall and you are a Republican, all you have to do is say the word “Obama” in conjunction with your opponent, and you will do no worse than a dead heat in the polling, and will probably win your race.

Even in Montana’s state legislature it seems the national climate has poisoned the debate.  For example, career politician, oil man and out-of-stater Roy Brown is up on TV with a new ad (see below), in which he smiles and says that he has been going door-to-door and that voters are telling him they are concerned about “out of control spending” and “taxes.”

The national climate gives him an opportunity to say this and get away with it.  In reality, Roy is a compulsive liar.

First of all, Montana is the only state in America with a surplus.  Second of all, despite 25 years of Republican control, it was the Dems who came in and gave voters a tax rebate in 2007, the only significant tax rebate in the state’s history, $100 million back to the tax payers.  Third of all, the state of Montana has gotten rave reviews by every major news outlet in America including Fox and the Wall Street Journal, for keeping spending at a bare-bones minimum, something, incidentally, that Montana Republicans have never been cited for by the same news outlets.  And state editorials have similarly been praising fiscal discipline in Helena.

Finally, there is this unfortunate fact:  Roy lost his own district to Schweitzer by a mega-landslide.  It was 66-32 I believe, with libertarian Stan Jones getting the balance.  That’s right: Roy got roughly 1/3 of his own district’s voters  in his run for governor.  And Roy has represented this area for over a decade.

Not only that, but two big Billings Republicans–Denny Rehberg and state senator Ken Peterson–have been in the press lately saying that Schweitzer has done a great job in keeping spending down and managing state finances.  (You can even watch him say so on this Youtube clip from an October 25, 2009 TEA Party gathering.)

So who, exactly, are these voters Roy mentions in his TV advertisement, the ones supposedly telling him that they are concerned with “spending”?  I think this guy Roy Brown, who has a face shaped like a penis unfortunately, is a compulsive liar. Here’s this week’s worst political ad.

UPDATE: One reason there is so much attention on this race is that it is one of a few chances Dems have to pick up a seat in the Senate.  May be the only chance, anybody know?  Help Kendall Van Dyk with a donation here.