The other day we saw Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick and the Montana Democratic Party working hand in hand on a story about Congressman Denny Rehberg and his votes regarding Cuba.

Ms. Jalonick wrote:

The pattern of Rehberg’s votes on Cuba, recently discovered by the Montana Democratic Party and pointed out to The Associated Press, shows a more complicated picture.

Thursday we discover during our daily check of the Montana GOP website that they claim that Senator Max Baucus also switched positions about Cuba and also received donations (almost twice the amount) just like was reported in the AP story that attempted to damage Rehberg’s credibility.

The MT GOP contends:

The research shows that Senator Max Baucus, who has in recent years supported several efforts to end the embargo on trade to Cuba has flip-flopped away from the pro-Cuban trade embargo position he held in 1995 and 1996.

And then there’s the donations the MT GOP states that Baucus received:

Between 1996 and 2000, Baucus received $18,560 from organizations opposed to the Cuban trade embargo.

Many of us remember that during the 2006 election season, the Montana Democratic party basically owned the media in Montana getting attack after attack published in the newspapers across the state with their stories and news reports credited to very few first-person accounts, but mostly relying on sources who were unnamed or a source close to an investigation.

In the good old days of reporting the news, I would expect this new information to be hitting the AP wires any minute now. A good editor, publisher or news director would ensure it happened. Since this is the age of gotcha politics and news reporting, I’m not gonna hold my breath. It was nice to see KTVQ in Billings airing both sides in a story posted early this morning.