Like presidents before him, President Barack Obama claimed to have the fanciful goal of moving “beyond partisan politics.” So did former President George W. Bush, who repeated, “I’m a uniter, not a divider” during his campaign for the nation’s highest office. Those hopes, of course, didn’t work out as planned for either of them.
I take pains here to leave national issues to national scribes who are far more qualified to opine on such matters as the Shirley Sherrod firing than I will ever be. But the petulant tone of the debate inside the D.C. Beltway is now infecting the rest of us.
Last week, the Montana Republican Party accused “Democratic leaders” of plotting to “sabotage” Congressman Denny Rehberg’s upcoming listening sessions by providing “their supporters with pre-fabricated ‘gotcha’ questions to heckle our congressman.”
Bowen Greenwood, the party’s executive director exposed the e-mail that a Carbon County Democrat sent to supporters that read, in part: “It would be cool for folks who can ask questions (i.e. heckle) to attend.”
Neil Garrett, the communications coordinator for the Carbon County Democrats, told the Great Falls Tribune his e-mail was taken out of context.
“From my viewpoint, heckle is asking challenging questions,” Garrett said. “By no means was it intended to encourage people to taunt or interrupt or badger or to do anything like that.”
I guess my semantic understanding of the word heckle is different than that of Garrett’s. Rehberg, who is the only one of Montana’s U.S. delegation to consistently held open town halls across the state over the last two years, should be able to answer questions – from his constituents without being jeered – a synonym of the innocent word “heckle.”
To be sure, Republicans are as culpable as Democrats in their flexible interpretations of reality. Recently, the state GOP used the debate over sex education curriculum in Helena public schools to warn that perhaps all of Montana is “in danger” of a similar fate if Democrats win control of the statehouse this fall.
“Keeping the Helena sex ed policy from spreading to the rest of the state depends on electing a Republican majority to the Legislature,” Will Deschamps, chair of the Montana GOP, said. “Democratic legislators and legislative candidates support enacting this kind of sex ed for the whole state.”
He was referring to House Bill 596, which would have directed the state to provide resources to school districts for sex education if they requested it. The bill would not have dictated how, or if, sex education was taught. And the implication that Democrats would mandate some sort of perverse sex education program for Montana’s children is ridiculous on its face.
For one, the state constitution bars the Legislature from influencing school curriculum at the local level. That’s why we have school boards. That’s why school boards members are elected.
Nonetheless, Greenwood repeated the talking point to Lee Newspapers, saying, “The fact of the matter is we do consider it a very realistic possibility.”
One recent glimmer of bipartisanship came from Rehberg, who gave credit to Montana Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer for his handling of the state budget.
“You’ve got a Democrat in Montana doing the right thing,” Rehberg said. “Why can’t we do the right thing now (in Washington D.C.).”
That was met with a statement from the Democratic state Senate Minority Leader Carol Williams: “We really appreciate Rehberg acknowledging the hard work Gov. Schweitzer and Montana Democrats have done to keep our budget in the black. At the same time, he certainly didn’t practice the same fiscal discipline while (serving) under President Bush.”
In this environment, Rehberg praising the opposite party can elicit the same reaction as criticizing it.