Tag Archives: Jon Tester

national news

Sen. Tester tells it like it really is

If you have a little more than five minutes to spare, take a look and listen to this video of Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat.

Spoiler alert: He scolds the Senate for failing to do its constitutionally guaranteed job, which is to act as a “co-equal branch” of the federal government.

Tester wants the Senate to vote on a Republican bill to open the government. He wants Donald Trump to carry through on his threat to veto it. And he wants the Senate to vote on whether to override the presidential veto.

“It’s as simple as that,” he said.

Indeed. It certainly isn’t a complicated process.

He also wonders what the nation’s founders would think of the Senate as it has regressed to this point, of being a body that requires a “permission slip” from the president to cast votes.

Seriously. Take just a few minutes out of your busy day to listen to this Montana cowboy. The man makes sense!

national news, political news, State news

This Senate race is getting white hot and nasty

BUTTE, Mont. — We’re stopped at our third Montana RV park and are enjoying some local TV … including some pretty nasty political ads being fired back and forth between Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and his Republican opponent, state auditor Matt Rosendale.

My wife and I have been out of Texas for about two weeks. We’ve parked our RV in West Yellowstone and Missoula, Mont. I’m wondering if we’re going to see such vitriol flying soon from the Senate campaigns of Beto O’Rourke and Ted Cruz.

The Republican is accusing Tester — a guy I’ve always considered to be a Second Amendment-loving moderate Democrat — of being a closet clone of House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Bernie “Democratic Socialist” Sanders.

Rosendale has tied himself to Donald John Trump. He calls himself a “Trump conservative,” which if I lived in Montana would be enough all by itself for me to support Tester.

Most of the negativity is coming from Rosendale. Tester is saying he approves the TV ads “even if Washington doesn’t like it.”

I guess I like Tester partially because of his haircut, which is a sort of buzz-cut flat-top ‘do.

Policy-wise, he is a moderate. He supports retaining the Affordable Care Act, which hardly is a poisonous policy position by my standard.

Sure, Montana is a Trump state. The president has campaigned for Rosendale. Given the troubles that are mounting for the president, my sense is that his support for a candidate — even one here in this bastion of the Wild West — is a mixed blessing at best.

Well, it’s my hope anyway.

As for O’Rourke and Cruz … take it away, boys.

national news

Trump knows things? Spill it, Mr. POTUS!

Donald Trump said the following — among many other nonsensical things — at a political rally in Michigan: “I know things about Tester that I could say, too. And if I said them, he’d never be elected again.”

What do you suppose they are?

I’m guessing they’re the kinds of “things” Trump said he knew about former President Barack Obama’s place of birth. Or about the “millions of illegal immigrants” who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Or about the wiretap that President Obama ordered on his campaign office in New York.

Of course, the president produced not a shred of evidence for anything he said he had.

Now he’s threatening Sen. Jon Tester with “things” he allegedly knows. Tester’s sin? Oh, all he did was question whether Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, Dr. Ronny Jackson, was fit for the job.

The Montana Democrat is not to blame for the president’s failure to vet Dr. Jackson properly before offering him as a VA secretary nominee. Tester isn’t to blame for Trump’s shabby and sloppy appointment process.

So now he’s threatening a U.S. senator? You know, I’m understanding better now what fired FBI Director James Comey means when he says Trump governs like a “mob boss.”

Disgraceful.

national news

Trump makes laughable demand for resignation

Jon Tester is doing his job as a U.S. senator.

The Montana Democrat spoke out against Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. As the ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Tester said Dr. Ronny Jackson — the White House physician — was unfit to lead the VA.

Sen. Tester based his judgment on allegations leveled by at least 20 members of the military, who accused Jackson of a number of misdeeds: over prescribing of medication; instigating a hostile work environment; drinking on the job.

Jackson pulled his name out of consideration for the VA job.

What, then, does the president do? He calls for Tester’s resignation from the Senate.

Let’s be clear. Sen. Tester did not conduct himself improperly. There isn’t a hint of malfeasance. No fraud. No scandal. No funny business, hanky-panky, or scandalous conduct.

All the man has done is his job as a United States senator, which he takes seriously enough to incur the unbridled — and unhinged — wrath of a president who takes himself far more seriously than the high office to which he was elected.

Trump’s tirade via Twitter against Tester provides yet another example of how the president behaves, how his mind works and how this man doesn’t respect the dignity of his office.

If anyone should consider resigning, to my mind it’s Donald Trump!

national news, political news

Trump wants Sen. Tester to quit because … ?

I’ve said this before and I will keep saying it for as long as I damn well please … but Donald J. Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing or saying.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., led the U.S. Senate criticism of Dr. Ronny Jackson, the president’s nominee to become secretary of veterans affairs. Allegations surfaced from within the military that Jackson — a Navy admiral — enabled a hostile work environment, that he over-prescribed medication and drank on the job.

Tester called on Jackson — the White House physician — to withdraw his nomination. Dr. Jackson did this week. He pulled out, calling the allegations false and saying they had become a “distraction.”

Fine. Hit the road, Doc. Don’t let the door hit you in the … whatever.

The president, though, once again talked way past the sale by saying Tester should resign his Senate seat. Why? Well, because he was overly harsh in his criticism of Dr. Jackson. Tester, though, is far from the only senator to say Jackson shouldn’t serve as head of the VA. A number of, um, Republicans joined that anti-Jackson chorus, too. Is the GOP president going to ask any or all of them to quit? Of course he won’t. That’s because he suffers from selective indignation.

As for Trump’s call for Tester to quit, it is just so much more malarkey coming from the mouth of the guy whose White House staff failed miserably in vetting Dr. Jackson. All they had to ask him was: Is there anything in your background, given the current climate in Washington, that should cause us any concern?

They didn’t. He did. He’s gone. Tester — and others — called him out.

Mr. President, just go find another VA secretary and this time, be sure he or she is free of the baggage that scuttled Admiral Jackson’s nomination.