Page 24 - Flathead Beacon // 1.22.13

24 | JANUARY 29, 2014 OPINION FLATHEADBEACON.COM

LIKE I WAS SAYIN’ Kellyn Brown
TWO THOUGHT
FOR Local Topics, New Governor,
Opposing Views

Primary Thoughts
Same Stalemate

H
By Joe Carbonari
By Tim Baldwin
OMELAND SECURITY OFFICIALS RECENTLY
told Montana that the licenses and identiication

We’re a long way away from June 3, the 2014 Rep. Mark Blasdel (R-Somers) is no strang- cards it issues do not comply with a number of fed-
primary election date here in Montana, but er to Montana politics, having served four ses- eral rules implemented by 2005’s REAL ID Act. Gov. Steve
many political types are already hard at work sions since his election in 2006. Blasdel then Bullock disagrees. And if this all sounds familiar, it should,
recruiting candidates and jockeying for lead- had the distinguished honor of being elected since we’ve been waging this battle for several years.
ership roles. The positions and alliances now House Speaker in 2013. Blasdel is termed out of If you recall, former Gov. Brian Schweitzer famously
being forged may well determine much of our the House and is now seeking election in Sen- ired a shotgun at clay pigeons branded with a federal li-
state’s future. It’s worth getting involved.
ate District 4, but Blasdel has primary compe- cense in a 2008 re-election campaign ad. That same year,

In the primaries, both Republicans and tition: Tammi Fisher (R-Kalispell), former Ka- he wrote a letter to 17 other governors to resist the chang-
Democrats tend to play to the more extreme lispell mayor and local attorney.
es. It read, in part:
views of their respective parties. That’s inevita- In the Republican-government model, the “Today, I am asking you to join with me in resisting the
ble because it’s not the moderates but rather the Senate is designed to add stability and expe- DHS coercion to comply with the provisions of REAL ID.
activists and the extremists who disproportion- rience to the legislative process; so senators If we stand together either DHS will blink or Congress will
ately turn out. To win, candidates often embrace should have requisite political experience, have to act to avoid havoc at our nation’s airports and fed-
positions and alliances that limit their lexibility knowledge and intuition. This is truer with eral courthouses.”
once in oice. This can lead to dysfunction.
Senate leaders – a likely position for Blasdel if At the time, Homeland Security said it wouldn’t blink

Because the fate of much legislation hinges elected – because they can determine which and apparently it wasn’t lying. Six years have passed since
on when and to which committees leadership bills get hearings or go to committee, a life or Schweitzer wrote that letter, and the federal government is
decides to steer a bill, it’s important to know, death situation for the bills.
now gradually enforcing parts of the REAL ID Act. What
and hopefully to inluence, who those leaders Will a damaged Republican Party do better does that mean, exactly? Well, initially, not much if you
might be. It is quite possible that a vote for a with Blasdel or Fisher in the Senate (especially don’t work for the federal government.
friend or acquaintance of character with whom in leadership)? To help answer the question, According to the DHS website, beginning this year, a
you might on some issues knowingly and ac- conservatives should study the Republican Montana ID will no longer pass muster to gain access into

ceptably disagree, turns into a disappointment Party Platform (http://www.mtgop.org/index. Department of Homeland Security headquarters. That
because they got tied into a group with which php/about/party-platform.html) to judge the doesn’t sound so bad. I’m not sure why anyone would want
you could not possibly agree – moderation be candidates and their political history because to visit that place. And I assume employees there have a
damned.
it contains Tea Party, Moderate and “RINO” passport or another form of ID to gain access.
This is the time for hard questions. “Who input from the latest Republican State Con- But it gets worse from there. Also in 2014, enforcement
can, and will, you work with?” How do you vention.
is scheduled to expand to restricted areas at other federal
stand, for instance, on Medicaid expansion and Blasdel: a proven conservative. Fisher: a facilities and nuclear power plants. Then, in 2015, those
voting rights? And importantly, are you willing newcomer to state politics. Senate District 4 not carrying a federal-government approved card will be

to compromise?
will decide on June 3, 2014.
semi-restricted at all federal facilities. Then, in 2016, it
GUESTCOLUMN | BobBrown
gets really bad.
DHS has said the inal phase of enforcing the REAL ID
Act could begin that year (at the earliest), and if it does our Women’s Sufrage
state IDs won’t allow us to board a commercial light. So
Bullock should be concerned. He sent a letter to Homeland
Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, arguing that Montana’s Young Belle Winestine described sufragist Jea- After her time in Congress with Rankin, in 1932
licenses are secure and raising questions about the federal nette Rankin as “magnetic,” with an “illuminous Winestine ran for the Montana Senate from Lewis

program.
quality,” and quoted another observer of the char- and Clark County. A political progressive like her
He wrote: “In addition to the excessive cost of creat- ismatic Rankin as like a “young panther ready to mentor Rankin, Winestine, sometimes with her
ing a national database, Montanans are appropriately con- spring.”
three children in tow, campaigned energetically to
cerned with the extensive collection of their personal and A century ago this year, Montana women won expand and adequately fund the state Children’s
private information by the government.”
the right to vote. Two years later, in 1916, with ardent Bureau to aid neglected children in the deepening
In 2007, when Bullock was attorney general, the Mon- support of Winestine and others like her, Montana depression. Her campaign slogan was “Smaller and
tana Legislature unanimously passed a bill that forbids Republican Rankin was the irst woman elected to better Senators.” She was defeated by her more tra-

the implementation of REAL ID in the state. You read that Congress where she successfully sponsored legisla- ditional opponent, Democrat Russell Hart.
clearly – every Democrat and Republican in the state Leg- tion requiring equal pay for equal work in federal Winestine made no more forays into politics,
islature opposed the federal law. And this stance should be civil service jobs. She is not well remembered for her and did not join Jeannette Rankin in Washington
viewed as more than “state’s rights” grandstanding.
dynamism and visionary leadership, however. Her when she returned there for her second term in 1941.
While there is disagreement over whether REAL ID is a place in history is for voting with the small minority Later that year Rankin was the only member of Con-
precursor to a national ID card, there are real privacy con- against World War I.
gress to oppose the declaration of war against Japan
cerns raised by more than a dozen states that are reluctant Winestine served as Rankin’s Congressional after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
to abide by the program. And those should be taken more assistant until Rankin left Congress after she was Rankin didn’t seek reelection in 1942, and was

seriously in this age of abusive spying.
defeated in a race for the U.S. Senate in 1918. Win- succeeded in Congress by pro-war Democrat Mike
Ohio, which originally signaled it would abide by the estine later observed that a speech Rankin gave in Mansield. Thirty years later, Rankin and Mansield
new rules, recently had a change of heart. Joe Andrews, support of mandatory mine safety regulations to a agreed in their opposition to the Vietnam War.
spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, told huge crowd in Butte following a catastrophic under- In her later years, Winestine was an organizer of
The Columbus Dispatch that state oicials were concerned ground ire there, was so powerful and compelling what became the Montana League of Women Voters,
over the ‘one driver-one license’ rule, which many state are that it was followed by nearly 15 minutes of applause. which was the leading group in support of the Equal
complying with using facial-recognition software, and re- She felt however, that the powerful Anaconda Com- Rights Amendment. While 35 states including Mon-

quirements to store sensitive documents.
pany, fearful of the election of such an efective ad- tana ratiied the ERA, it was never approved by the
“People have concerns we are trampling their rights if vocate for mine workers, then used its inluence to 38 necessary to add amendments to the Constitu-
we do this,” Andrews said.
prevent Rankin from going to the Senate.
tion. Realizing this, in one of her last public state-
At the least, REAL ID will require additional docu- I met Belle when she was in the halls of the Mon- ments, Winestine said sadly and succinctly, “men
ments to renew your driver’s license, making you spend tana legislature in the late 1970s urging legislators and women should work together without worrying
more time at the DMV. At the most, it is a major threat to not rescind earlier ratiication of the Equal Right about which one is better.”
to citizens’ rights. Either way, there must be a better way Amendment. She was barely ive feet tall. She had a Belle Winestine passed away in Helena in 1985
to ight the war on terror while at once preserving state’s gentleness about her, but was direct in her speech, at the age of 94.

rights.
and there was no mistaking her meaning when she Bob Brown is a former Montana secretary of state
spoke.
and state Senate president.