subject: Montana: Home of America's Buffoon Legislature [print this page] Montana: Home of America's Buffoon Legislature
Montana's legislature is rapidly gaining national attention for acting like buffoons, nutjobs, crazies, whatever name you want to give it, it's wacky.
Writing about the "work" of the Montana Legislature, local papers are reporting that
National scrutiny is again focused on Montana, this time because of proposals before the Legislature. Those include a collection of bills to nullify federal legislation, including the Endangered Species Act, as well as a "birther" bill to require state-mandated proof of citizenship for presidential candidates; bills to smack down locally approved ordinances on marijuana and protections for gay people (take that, Missoula); and let's not forget the bill that would have made county sheriffs the supreme authority.
Now, it looks like Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, faced with a ridiculous amount of wacky legislation headed for his desk, has picked up a cattle branding iron with the word VETO and has even gone so far as to registered the brand with the Montana Department of Livestock.
Surely one cause of the lack of substantive rational legislation is a lack of leadership among the Republican legislators. Republican Legislative Leaders include Representative Mike Milburn and Senator Jim Peterson. Even fellow Republicans are calling for an end to the wacky legislation.
In a quote that is now famous in Montana, the courageous GOP Representative Walter McNutt said:
"You're scaring the be-you-know-what out of them with this kind of talk. We've heard enough this session. I say stop here. Quit scaring our constituents and quit letting us look like a bunch of buffoons."
