Does anyone feel, like I do, that the 60th Montana Legislative session will ever end? February 28 will be the halfway point. The session is due to end on April 27. I know, I know, it’s only for 90 days every two years. One of my friends told me he thought they should meet every 90 years for two days. Maybe!

But, it seems like they’ve been in session for a year now. I don’t really see anything that has been accomplished. I think many Montanans are scared to death when these citizen legislators are in Helena.

The other evening I met a friend at a local event and the conversation turned to the Montana Legislature. He said they are introducing stupid bills, like the one for paper towels, and not getting anything done that’s good for the state. I have to agree with him as we approach halftime.

Then, there are some bills that don’t really deal with a state issue, but deal with a Federal issue. Of course, you can tie them to the state somehow, but why waste the time? A couple of examples were the bills that the Great Falls Tribune mentioned in their editorial today, “Heartening to see wide state support for troops”

The first is by State Representative Mike Milburn (R-Cascade). His bill “urges” the federal government to hold Malmstrom AFB financially accountable for correcting an erosion problem near the base.

The other is a resolution by State Senator Steve Gallus (D-Butte) against increasing the number of military personnel serving in Iraq.

Sometimes these people get to Helena and drink the water and think they are omnipotent.

While we’re talking about bills, I’d like to see a bill that gives all active duty military personnel free hunting and fishing licenses, even if they are not stationed here. For my veteran friends, if you are even slightly disabled, your licenses are free, too. It would be good for tourism and bring in a lot of out of state money.

Last session I contacted a few of my local legislators about bills I wanted them to support or oppose. I probably sent 10-15 e-mails. One person out of the four I contacted responded and he was not even my legislator. But, he gave me a smart-ass answer to what I thought was a decent request that dealt with taxes. He’s not in the legislature now.

One thing that always comes out of a Montana legislative session is somebody gets the idea that they can run for higher office (I still think something’s in the water down there). Some succeed. Most fail. Look for a few of the leaders of the Republicans to get the itch. They’ll wait until the session is almost done or completely over before making an announcement. I don’t see anybody from the conservative side that I think could win a state-wide race, but we’ll see. On the Democratic side, I think the Senate President Mike Cooney seems like a straight shooter and since he’s run a state-wide race, he might be a contender for another state-wide office. He also has the prestige of sitting in the former seat of the current junior U.S. Senator, Jon Tester (D-Mont.), so he has the Ol’ momentum on his side.

I’ll bet the closer we get to April 27, we’ll see more dogfights. One thing for sure, the Democrats have the “big dog” (Gov. Schweitzer) who they will bring in and probably win most of the contentious issues. Time will tell, but time seems like it’s not moving from where I sit.