Happy Friday! Here’s a quick look and commentary about some random stories that “Caught My Eye” this week that I did not have time to write about:

Mehlman:

Former Republican National Committee Chairman and Bush Campaign Manager Ken Mehlman has announced that he is gay. I’ll bet the far-right Republicans gasped when they heard this announcement, “OMG!”

Mehlman did a wonderful job for the GOP and Bush. I think I met him once – and along with Karl Rove, Mehlman was a major reason why Bush succeeded in getting elected and reelected as President. I’m glad he’s found peace in his life.

Alaska Senate:

I did a column about this race earlier this week, but on Wednesday CQ Politics ran a short story about the blame game going on in Alaska with the Murkowski/Miller GOP Senate primary. There are ties to Montana. Here’s a snippet:

Some Alaska insiders say that general consultants Ladonna Lee and Eddie Mahe, both of Foley & Lardner, underperformed. The two have worked previously for both Murkowski and her father, former governor and Senator Frank Murkowski (R), as well as for former Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), who was defeated in his bid for a fourth term in 2006.

I would have to say they “underperformed” in the Burns 2006 race, too. Maybe “underperformed” is too nice a word?

Speaking of Burns:

Former Senator Conrad Burns wrote an Op/Ed that appeared in the Washington Examiner on Monday about the Senate not confirming the U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan. Yes, Azerbaijan. You can read it HERE.

The punctuation police are out and about. I’m sure they could find plenty of work on this website. Here’s a short article about their work and their book.

Lee Newspapers:

Last Sunday, famed reporter Charles Johnson did a story about Republican “early birds” entering the Governor’s race. It was old news, but you can read it HERE. Maybe the news was not quite as old as Johnson, but old news any way.

One piece of “new” info was a rumor about former Congressman Rick Hill running for Governor. Readers may remember that he quit his congressional seat (after two terms) because of health reasons. Denny Rehberg won the seat and has held it ever since. Maybe there’s been a miracle with Hill’s health? BTW, I did not support him in the Republican primary when he was running for Congress and would find it hard to support him if he throws his hat into the Governor’s race.

Phone Messages:

Ever leave a voicemail message and then afterwards think to yourself, “Maybe I should have said that differently?” I imagine that is what a Missoula School Board member is thinking today after leaving, what the Missoulian described as “an obscenity-laced message on the answering machine of a school board critic.” To top it off, the lady screamed at a Missoulian reporter for calling her about her resignation.

You can read the story HERE for a chuckle.

Montana Department of Commerce:

Here’s hoping the new director of the Montana Department of Commerce doesn’t send me an obscenity-laced e-mail or leave me an obscenity-laced voicemail for writing about this story, but there’s something fishy going on in Helena with this department. Maybe it’s just the new “Sheriff” marking his territory, but he recently fired the Director of Tourism. That seems to happen a lot in Montana, and I have written about some of the shenanigans in Great Falls with the airport.

The Great Falls Tribune has the story. One has to wonder what the reason(s) are. The Tribune’s best reporter is on the story and hopefully we’ll learn more in the following days.

Finalists?

According to the Great Falls Tribune, there are three finalists for the Cascade County Commissioners seat being vacated by Peggy Beltrone. They are George Paul, Jeff Mangan and Jane Weber. In my opinion, two of the three would be terrible choices. I would select George Paul if I had a vote. We won’t get into the reasons for the other two leaving me with such a crappy taste in my mouth, although my faithful readers probably know why. You can read the Tribune story HERE.

NFL Football:

It was highly evident after watching the Colts/Packers game last night that the new rule having the referee who spots the ball after each play move behind the offense instead of behind the defensive line is not going to work. Teams like the Colts who run an up tempo offense will suffer as will any other team that tries to quickly run plays. If they do keep this rule, they need to select refs who are not fat and slow for that position.

By the way, the Colts always suck in the preseason; they are somewhere around 4-20 since 2005 in pre-season games, so the Green Bay fans should not book Super Bowl tickets just yet, although they did look pretty good. Sadly, they have the Favre curse which will continue until he retires.

High School/College Football:

Are you ready for some football? I am! The High School football season kicks into high gear this weekend. The College teams get going Thursday, September 2, with a few games and then on Saturday, September 4, they have a pretty full slate of games.

Twitter:

You should really add your name to the over 300 people following me on Twitter for updates, scores, and all the rest. Click on the Twitter link on the right!

Have a great weekend!