Today in the Billings Gazette there is a story about U.S. Senator Jon Tester: “Still no Appropriations seat, but Tester nears ethics audit.”

It was a humorous story to say the least.

Yep, Tester still does not have an Appropriations seat. Surprised? Not me. Since he’s ranked around #99, I wouldn’t hold my breath on this promise coming true anytime soon. It’s not too hard to believe that his leader, Harry Reid, would outright lie to get a majority in the U.S. Senate. Harry and Max Baucus sold Montanans a bill of goods last year when they made this promise.

As I’ve said before, “It’s all about winning the next election.”

His spokesperson spoke about $100 million brought into the state since January. Since there are still no appropriations bills passed for Fiscal Year 2008, this is not even close to being true. If they are speaking of FY 2007 appropriations, the major work on those were done by his predecessor and Congressman Denny Rehberg.

Of course, the reporter let that statement fly.

One person commented on the Billings Gazette website about a state judge doing an audit on a Federal official, and asked some good questions like how a state judge could do it. Who would pay for it? Would the state judge be taken from his/her regular duties? What about the Senate ethics committee? Good questions, but the writer failed to see that this promise was just a stunt to get votes. Sure, he’ll have someone do an audit.

Some of the other comments were not nearly as nice. Mean people do suck.

But the future is now. Work needs to be done. Oil is close to $100 a barrel. Immigration reform has not been done. Earmark reform went down the tubes, as democrats actually on the appropriations committee are drunk on their new found power. Congress’ approval rating is lower than ever since the democrats won the “historic” election in 2006. The democrats, including Tester, found out just how easy it is to get tainted campaign donations. Malmstrom is losing its missiles and Montana’s defense funding was cut in half. Some Montana companies have closed. Rangel and Baucus and Tester may give us the largest tax increase in history. Oh, and the promise by Tester, Pelosi and Reid to end the war has failed.

Has he peaked? The 46% approval rating Tester had in the July 2007 Gazette poll may be the watermark for his term. The left does not seem very happy with him. He was elected with just 49% of the vote. 51% voted for someone else.