For the second time in as many weeks, Congressman Dennis Rehberg’s support for endangering the Montana world-famous hunting and fishing heritage is under fire.
Montana hunters have been clear in their opposition to Rehberg’s Roadless Area Release Act (H.R. 1581), cosponsored by Rehberg. The Montana Wildlife Federation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation are among 26 Montana hunting and fishing organizations that oppose Rehberg’s bill.
The bill would open up millions of roadless acres putting some of Montana’s richest big game country at risk. The legislation has been called “short-sighted, top-down legislation” by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation who pulled their support for the legislation at the request of Montana hunters in August. [RMEF, Website]
The Montana Wildlife Federation is running an independent TV ad expressing the need to protect Montana’s outdoor legacy by opposing the legislation:
“It’s amazing that Dennis Rehberg is ignoring the voices of Montana hunters saying that legislation threatening Montana’s big game is ‘common sense,’” said Montana Democratic Party Executive Director Ted Dick. “Montana hunters have been loud and clear, standing with Jon Tester against Dennis Rehberg’s out-of-touch, anti-hunting agenda—no matter what Montanans say.”
This is the second ad from the Montana Wildlife Federation which began running an ad last Sunday criticizing Rehberg’s legislation.
…from The Montana Democrats:
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Dennis Rehberg’s supporters tonight are pushing a new GOP poll about Montana’s 2012 Senate race. But a second poll released today—conducted by the same GOP polling firm—tells a much different story.
The first poll, conducted by the firm Public Opinion Strategies for Karl Rove’s secretive organization American Crossroads, shows questionable and uncharacteristic results for the race between Jon Tester and Congressman Dennis Rehberg.
The second poll released today, also conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, has much different results. It shows the race much closer—well within the margin of error.
“Montanans don’t trust Crossroads or Dennis Rehberg, so why would they believe numbers from a firm that can’t even decide which numbers are accurate,” said Ted Dick, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party. “Congressman Rehberg believes secrecy and unlimited corporate spending belong in Montana’s elections, and he and his allies will stop at nothing to try to influence the people of our state.”
Fascinating.
Image by republicanconference via Flickr
After earning the title of the Tea Party Caucus’s top earmarker, and after giving himself five pay raises in Congress, Montana’s millionaire Congressman is now telling Montanans that they should turn to their local governments if they need any help.
What Rehberg forgot to mention was that the last time Congress approved earmarks, he earned the title of “tea partier with his name on the most earmarks” — requesting more than $100 million for Montana.
Rehberg, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, also failed to mention that while he was spending millions in taxpayer money, he gave himself five pay raises during his 12 years in Congress–at a time when hardworking Montanans were nation was struggling. Hmmm.
“Congressman Dennis Rehberg is desperately wants Montanans to forget his long, irresponsible record of giving himself pay raises while spending their money in Congress,” said Ted Dick, Executive Director of the Montana Democratic Party. “Now his message to Montanans is ‘tough luck.’ We join all Montanans in demanding more responsible decisions from Congress than Dennis Rehberg’s.”
After 35 years in politics, Congressman Dennis Rehberg is now telling Montanans that Congress is functional–even after his historic vote against middle-class tax relief and Montana Keystone Pipeline jobs–and despite historically low job approval ratings.
“Montanans are unhappy with Congressman Rehberg and his party bosses because their out of touch partisanship is on fully display,” Said Ted Dick, Executive Director of the Montana Democratic Party. “Congressman Rehberg doesn’t want Montanans to know what he’s doing in Congress because he’s only serving himself, not Montana. To a career politician like Dennis Rehberg raising taxes on the middle class for political gain is business as usual – he just doesn’t want anyone to notice.”
Congressman Rehberg recently told the Bozeman Chronicle editorial board that Congress is functioning well: “I just hope that we don’t destroy our government, or our trust in government, because of the constant, constant, constant
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observation of the sausage being made.”
Here is a complete transcript of Congressman Rehberg’s response:
Bozeman Chronicle Question: “The perception outside of Washington is that Congress is essentially dysfunctional, that it’s deadlocked on almost any issue and it can’t really accomplish anything. Is that perception, amongst you and your colleagues — that it’s ceased to function?”
Rehberg Answer: “Not necessarily, again I go back to the earlier conversation about people seeing the sausage made more than they’ve ever seen before. It bothers me when I see Rasmussen or somebody else put out a poll saying that we have 5 percent approval and Lindsay Lohan is held in higher esteem than us.”
“Well, I would suggest that if Fox News and CNN and everybody else focused as much on a 24 hour basis, 7 days a week on Lindsay, she’d be right down there with us or you. I mean, it’s the close scrutiny that’s occurring and that’s a good thing, I just hope that we don’t destroy our government or our trust in government because of the constant, constant, constant observation of the sausage being made.”
Right. Because unobserved government is healthy, trustworthy and sane… Just like Lindsay.
Don Pogreba over at Intelligent Discontent, has an excellently ordered post about vital Rehberg activities that need to be noticed by voters- and covered by media (The media is, apparently and statistically, securely in the back pocket of Rehberg’s designer jeans):
Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr
I’ll admit that typically when I write about Montana’s sole representative in the House it’s to criticize him for not really doing anything. This year, however, no doubt inspired by his desire to move up an office, Rehberg has been a dynamo of activity. Unfortunately, most of it has been bad for Montana and the nation.
Back home, he’s made such poor business decisions that his net worth somehow dropped by over 50%, he’s claimed to struggle with the burden of being cash poor, he’s pursued a failed lawsuit against the City of Billings and its firefighters, and he’s managed to get Montana’s media to ignore many of his terrible decisions in Washington.
Honestly, guys, you need to do better. When Rehberg makes national news, you need to cover it.
While I’m sure I’ve missed more than a few Rehberg actions this year, these are simply 25 Things Montana Voters Should Know About Dennis Rehberg:
Millionaire Congressman Dennis Rehberg says home mortgage lenders “should have been left to fail”, according to a report in Lee Newspapers.
A record number of Americans lost their homes during the subprime mortgage crisis, but Congressman Rehberg’s comments reveal he was never concerned about stemming the tide of foreclosures.
“Congressman Rehberg has no solutions because—as a second generation millionaire—he never had to worry about struggling with a mortgage,” said Ted Dick, Executive Director of the Montana Democratic Party. “Congressman Rehberg needs to explain why he would allow more Montanans to have lost their homes during the mortgage crisis.”
Congressman Rehberg signed on to a bill to hold Fannie and Freddie accountable for extreme bonuses seven months after the bill was introduced, and just hours after Jon Tester spoke out against the bonuses during a Senate hearing.
“Apparently Congressman Rehberg will try to steal someone else’s ideas when thinks he can gain politically,” continued Dick.
Congressman Rehberg’s comments about letting home mortgage lenders fail come as GOP Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich
is forced to answer questions about his consulting contract with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“We’ll give the Congressman another opportunity,” Dick said. “He should join with his campaign partner Michele Bachmann and denounce Newt Gingrich for enriching himself with a questionable $1.6 million contract with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
Congressman Dennis Rehberg is telling Montanans today that taxpayers shouldn’t provide “seed money for bonuses for corporate fat-cats,” but his record in Congress tells a different story.
Rehberg, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, actually voted against a bill that would have barred any recipient of the 2008 Wall Street bailout from paying “unreasonable or excessive” compensation to executives [HR 1664, Vote 182, 4/01/09].
“Montanans won’t tolerate being lectured by Rep. Dennis Rehberg, a millionaire developer who opposed reforms to clean up the mess on Wall Street and make sure the financial crisis never happens again,” said Ted Dick, Executive Director of the Montana Democratic Party. “After 30 years as a politician, Congressman Rehberg has a long record of putting Wall Street ahead of Montana, and no Montanans will be fooled by his lip service.”
Congressman Rehberg has also used his power to protect government subsidies for Big Oil and offshore tax corporate shelters, the proceeds of which often go to CEO bonuses [Guardian, 3/3/11]. And he’s used taxpayer dollars to enrich himself.
“If Congressman Rehberg wants to talk about taxpayer-funded compensation, he’ll have to answer for his five votes to raise his own pay,” added Dick.
Here’s some of what Congressman Rehberg has done to funnel taxpayer dollars into CEO’s pockets, and his own:
PROTECTING BIG OIL SUBSIDIES — In February 2011, Rehberg voted against an amendment that required oil companies that hold royalty-free leases allowing them to drill for free on the public’s offshore lands to renegotiate those leases so that the public is paid the standard royalty charged for drilling. (GAO estimates that closing this loophole could save up to $53 billion over 25 years). [HR 1, House Roll Call Vote #109, 2/18/11]
PROTECTING OFFSHORE TAX SHELTERS — In 2002, Rehberg voted against an amendment to stop corporations from re-incorporating in offshore tax havens, such as Bermuda, to create shell corporations as a way to avoid paying U.S. taxes. The amendment was defeated 186-192. [HR 4931,Vote #247, 6/21/02]
Rehberg has voted himself a taxpayer-funded pay raise five times:
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PAID FOR BY THE MONTANA DEMOCRATIC PARTY;
COL. JAMES WHEELER, U.S. ARMY (RET.), TREASURER, PO Box 802 HELENA, MT 59624
GETINFO@MONTANADEMOCRATS.ORG; WWW.MONTANADEMOCRATS.ORG |
My inbox today contained the “Congressman Denny Rehberg Newsletter “(Click here for online version).
Yes, I subscribe. I mostly enjoy the way that the embedded polls don’t work if you vote against Denny’s stated positions on things.
But I digress.
There is a flashing police light animation at the top of the page- leading one to believe that the newsletter contains information vital to National Security- or, at the very least, a “Cops” video.
Unfortunately, neither is true.
What’s the hubbub about? It’s the manufactured story of the impending removal of the Jesus Statue abutting Big Mountain, ostensibly under the umbrella of First Amendment Rights and equally ostensibly, the trampling of the memory of every Veteran who has ever served the United States of America.
Again, neither is true.
This smokescreen is manufactured by the Rehberg campaign to obscure his gaping lack of congressional leadership in the face of the impending reality of Jon Tester’s more impressive record.
Period.
I happen to agree with Cowgirl:
At first I had thought maybe Rehberg had seen an opportunity to make inroads among persuadable churchgoing voters.
But I now realize that all of this Jesus stuff is being aimed at Tester for his strength: support from veterans. The statue was constructed 50 years ago by World War II veterans, as a memorial, an homage to a similar statue that these vets had seen in Italy during their tour of duty.
And Jon Tester’s star is very high among veterans, and has been so ever since he took office in 2007 and immediately made vets a centerpiece of his domestic policy. He focuses not on statues, but on services–health care for veterans, jobs for veterans, loans for veterans, things that matter. Veterans like Tester, a lot.
Naturally, Montana Republicans (who after two decades of dominance have been virtually eradicated as statewide officeholders, thanks to Schweitzer, Tester and a resurgent Democratic party) believe that the veteran vote is a GOP birthright that can never be taken from them. And now that Tester has taken it from them, Rehberg had decided to pander to vets. He is has taken up a meaningless issue, trying to seem as if he is fighting a battle for their statue, when in fact the statue never stood any chance of being moved.
Tester also believes the statue should remain unmolested. But after making his opinion known, he moved on to doing real work on things that matter, because he understands (unlike Rehberg who is a man-child) that if you are in Congress, you should be acting like an adult. (emphasis mine)
And so Tester is in the news this weekend, for example, fighting for a bill that would help decrease unemployment among veterans by offering tax credits to businesses who employ them. He is fighting for soldiers who fought foreign wars, while the dunce Rehberg is looking for credit for fighting a fictitious War on Jesus.
Rehberg is turning this into the opening salvo in a non-existent culture war- shooting at the most easily-offended sensibility of Christians- and pretending that it’s “Liberals” holding the gun.
I just hope I’m not the ony person of faith who sees this smokescreen for what it is- shameless (and gutless) pandering.
Rehberg’s apparently not swayed by the people in his state affected by HIV. Nor is he swayed by science.
“If ever passed, this spending bill would set back the progress we are making in preventing HIV and providing basic care and treatment for those who have HIV/AIDS in our country,” commented Carl Schmid, Deputy Executive Director of The AIDS Institute.
House Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Denny Rehberg (R-MT) introduced a fiscal year 2012 spending bill that guts many programs, including health reform, and resurrects non-science based prevention policies.
Most disappointing is how the bill would impede prevention. Rehberg’s bill would cut by nearly $33 million funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. This is despite an estimated 50,000 new HIV infections each year and over 230,000 people unaware of their infection. The U.S. government invests only about 3 percent of its HIV funding in prevention. The lifetime cost of caring and treating one person with HIV is approximately $360,000. In order to help achieve the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy to reduce the number of new infections and increase testing levels by 2015, the President has proposed an increase of $57 million for HIV prevention in FY12.
On top of cutting CDC’s budget, the bill would ban federal funding of syringe exchange programs, a scientifically proven method to prevent HIV and other infections while not increasing drug use, and would resurrect failed abstinence only until marriage programs. Additionally, the bill would decimate the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program by cutting its budget from $105 million to $20 million, eliminate all Title X spending, which funds HIV testing programs for women, and the entire Prevention and Public Health Fund.
The House bill proposes to flat fund the entire Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, which provides care and treatment to over 550,000 low-income people with HIV/AIDS. It fails to address the crisis in the Ryan White AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). There are currently over 8,500 people in nine states on ADAP waiting lists and over 445 people in six states who have been disenrolled from the program due to budget constraints and growing enrollment. The AIDS Institute and its partners have been advocating for an increase of at least $106 million. The President has requested a $55 million increase. In order to address the current wait list, an increase of approximately $98 million would be required.
Chairman Rehberg’s bill also prevents implementation of much of the Affordable Care Act, which once fully implemented, would both bring many people with HIV/AIDS into lifesaving care and treatment for the first time and help to prevent HIV.
The one bright spot in the bill is Rehberg’s proposal to increase medical research spending at the National Institutes of Health by $1 billion.
“While we realize we are living in very difficult fiscal times, this bill is not just about making difficult funding decisions, but about resurrecting many controversial policies that will never pass the Congress nor be signed by the President,” commented Michael Ruppal, Executive Director of The AIDS Institute. “As Congress finalizes its FY12 spending bill, The AIDS Institute will work with the House, Senate and the Administration to increase, rather than cut funding for prevention and adequately fund all parts of the Ryan White Program, including ADAP. Additionally, we will work to defeat all extreme policy riders.
The bill (HR 3070) has not been formally considered by the House Appropriations Subcommittee. The Senate Appropriations Committee already has passed its own version of the bill. Since Congress has not passed any spending measures, the government is currently operating under a short term continuing resolution.
This schmuck is completely unwilling to listen to facts- or to believe that HIV is in Montana, and it poses particular problems for his constituents. Maybe it’s time to educate him.
Call his office: (202) 225-3211
From Eternity To Here 