Although the most newsworthy meeting in Washington this week was the one where Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress met with President Obama at the White House, there was another meeting where a couple Montana senators were able to leverage some media attention.

Both meetings produced little, if any, real solutions except for some face time for the politicians on the news.

The Central Montana Defense Alliance, which is a group of business people from the local Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, took another trip to Washington, D.C., to talk to the Air National Guard about moving of the F-15s from Montana to California and gaining C-27J cargo mission. Of course, they talked about any other mission the Air Force would like to move to Great Falls.

They also met with Montana’s U.S. Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester. It’s not known if they did any Christmas shopping in our nation’s capital…

Tester and Baucus received press coverage on the local television news and in the local newspaper. So it is “mission accomplished” for Baucus and Tester – they received the all-important press coverage on the Tuesday evening news and in the Wednesday newspaper.

In listening to and reading the local coverage, it does not sound too good for the F-15s to stay in Montana.

The most interesting part of the coverage of this “event” was what Tester said in this sound bite from a local television station:

“…we look forward to continue working with the Air National Guard and General Wyatt to make sure the transition is clean and the right thing to do for Montana and the taxpayers.”

(Emphasis mine)

Hmmm, just rollover and take it. It does not sound like there’s much fight left in Tester for Montana’s military.

It sounds like losing the F-15s is a done deal. For Tester, it will make it tougher for his re-election since a thousand or more jobs may be lost in Central Montana under his watch (one missile squadron at Malmstrom and hundreds of jobs when the F-15s leave). With his vote yesterday to continue earmarks (after being against them), Tester is ripe for being defeated.

Everyone who follows politics and the military understands that Montana is in a weak position. First, Montana has three members in Congress. California has 55. Montana’s three members have no seats on any defense or military committees that they can use as leverage. California does.

Earlier this year, I wrote a three-part series called “Ready to Fight?” with some ideas on how the local folks can help obtain or retain military missions. You can read the three columns by clicking on “Categories” on the right side of the screen and then selecting “Ready to Fight?”