The last month has not been too good for Lt. Governor John Walsh (D), who is running for U.S. Senate. I’d bet that Walsh and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie probably wish the drip, drip, drip, of negative information about them would stop.

Last month reporters “discovered” that Walsh improperly solicited other Guard leaders to join a non-governmental group. This information (a 2010 U.S. Army report) miraculously appeared and the press ran with it. Politics is a contact sport. The Walsh folks circled the wagons and did a pretty decent job handling it.

I wrote about it in the column titled, MT Senate 2014: Coercion? I basically made fun of the report. I like Walsh, and I really would like to see more veterans serving in Washington.

Now there’s more!

In the last few days there were reports that the “adverse 2010 Army report on U.S. Senate candidate John Walsh’s actions while head of the Montana National Guard blocked his promotion to the rank of general.”

A Lee Newspaper reporter explained it this way:

“Upon his appointment as adjutant general, Walsh received a ‘brevet’ promotion to brigadier general, which is a temporary promotion from the governor, allowing him to hold the rank but not be paid at that level or recognized federally.”

The Lee Newspapers reporter also added a little salt to the wound writing that the one-star general rank was, “a rank all other Montana National Guard heads have achieved the past 25 years.”

Ouch.

I explain it this way:

Walsh wore the one star of brigadier general and the state recognized him for it, but the feds did not. He was not paid as a one-star general, but as a colonel.

Governor Steve Bullock who picked Walsh as his running mate appeared on MTN news and crashed and burned trying to explain the situation. Bullock’s “bob and weave” and the rhythm of his delivery reminded me of Jeff Foxworthy getting ready to deliver a “you might be a redneck” joke. Bullock is a pretty terrible public speaker – just a notch or two above Sen. Max Baucus.

So now what?

It seems almost everyone on the left has endorsed John Walsh for U.S. Senate. It’s going to take several million dollars to change the negatives of Walsh – money that he may not be able to raise. This issue needs to go away and go away quickly for Walsh to mount a serious campaign against Daines.

By the way, as of this morning nobody has filed to run for U.S. Senate in 2014. March 10 is the last day to file.

Meanwhile, Republican Steve Daines can sit back and watch the Walsh show, and count the checks that are rolling in for his senate campaign. Right now about all Daines needs to do is to be careful not to throw Walsh and the Democrats a life preserver.

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