Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

As I was listening to the Montana Senate Debate last night My Darling Wife made a very good observation.

MDW: You know hon, you can't change your vote so why are you listening.

She was right, as usual. My Absentee Ballot is all ready turned in so even if something major happened, I can't change anything, I have to live with my decision.

I guess I just had to listen though. The Montana Lefty Blogs had built up the other Debates for Senate but they have been very quiet about this one. I wanted to listen to see if I could figure out the Lefties silence on this debate as compared to the others.

I didn't figure out the reason for the silence but it was interesting to watch and listen and see the demeanor of the candidates. Burns was having his usual proplem of staying on topic but I think any politician that has been around as long as he has suffers from this problem. Burns's stage presence was better than Tester for sure. Testers lacks some panache that Burns has, but it is something he will gain if he wins. Being a professional politician, which he will be if he wins, will give him the experience he is so painfully lacking at the moment. He will learn to dodge questions too.

No winners, no losers, just an interesting debate.

The vote is a trust more delicate than any other, for it involves not just the interests of the voter, but his life, honor and future as well. Jose Marti

I normally comment more on Montana politics than National but so far I haven't talked about the Morrison mess that recently flared up in the Democrat camp. I read the story and didn't comment on it because it really looked like much to do about nothing to me. He had an affair, admittedly a big red mark in my book but nothing to bring down the hills about since it's something between him and his wife, and then later hired an independent counsel to deal with a situation because the women he had the affair with was the fiance of the man being investigated. That sounds proper to me.

So why this morning do I comment on it? The Horse Sense Column thinks I am wrong.

To get a better perspective, the State Bureau called four longtime, nonpartisan political observers.

Three of the four people interviewed believe that news of Morrison's affair and his handling of the case makes it harder for him to attack Burns' ethics.

Three of their four "experts" think this really hurts Morrison's chances to take on Burns. So my question, is there something here, pertains? I don't think so but since I wouldn't vote for Morrison to start with, that might be tainting my view of the situation. I don't see that anything Morrison has done can even begin to compare to Burn's fiasco. An affair, Morrison, as compared to a sitting Senator, Burns, taking bribes from a lobbyist. Quite a gulf of difference between the two so I don't see that it hurts him.

Anybody who cares about Montana politics tell me, is there something here or is it much to do about nothing? What you say won't change my opinion of Morrison, Tester or Burns, the three names you here about in the Senate race, I won't vote for any of them, but I am curious about the consequences of this.

Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea. Henry Fielding