I happened to catch the commentary by George Ochenski in the Missoula Independent over the weekend called, “The writing on the wall” and you can read it HERE.

Ochenski writes about the woes of congress and the Obama White House and singles out Montana’s two U.S. Senators, Max Baucus and Jon Tester.

I guess we know that all hell is breaking loose when a liberal commentator takes on the home team.

On Max Baucus, Ochenski writes:

Instead, as Montanans know only too well, our own Sen. Max Baucus put Liz Fowler, a former insurance executive, in charge of his health care rewrite. We were notified in no uncertain terms that the model followed by virtually all of the industrialized nations of the world—a single-payer system that covers everyone—was “off the table.” Despite almost continuous protests at Baucus’ offices here all last summer, our senator, in loyalty to the corporations instead of the citizenry, refused to budge.

The best thing going for Max Baucus is that he is not up for election until 2014, but I believe his base of support has finally grown tired of Montana’s Washington’s Max.

On Jon Tester, Ochenski writes:

Montanans have direct experience of crushing disappointment from our other Democratic senator as well. How easy is it to remember Jon Tester riding the wave of adulation as Pearl Jam concerts raised tens of thousands of dollars for his senatorial bid? The promises to end the wars and repeal the Patriot Act came readily to his lips and thence to our ears. All too willing to believe what we wanted to hear, Montanans pulled off the nearly impossible by ousting a sitting senator to replace him with the promise of a new day.

Of course, I could go on and on about other things Tester promised but did not deliver on, such as his “no earmarks, period” promise, annual ethics review, out of control spending, loss of one-fourth of Malmstrom’s missile mission, etc. Tester is up for reelection in 2012 and he’s already running scared. Even Pearl Jam may not be able to save him. They may not want to.

In an unprecedented move, Tester started campaigning over two and half years before his election. With both Baucus and Tester in campaign mode, getting any real work out of them in the coming months will be just too much to ask.

Right now, just about anyone could probably beat Jon Tester or Max Baucus. Unfortunately, the bench for the GOP is not that deep and the best politician in the state of Montana, Governor Brian Schweitzer, says he won’t run for their seats.