Current Montana Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Denny Rehberg spoke to the Montana Legislature on Monday. All three members of the Montana Congressional Delegation are invited to speak to the Montana Legislature every two years, but that’s a column for another day.

I read a copy of his speech which was released about the time he was appearing in front of the legislators – I enjoyed it. Many of the points I agree with.

This sentence gained attention from the inept Montana media:

I asked: how can we put some of these judicial activists on the Endangered Species List?

In context, here is what Rehberg said:

Unfortunately, the only thing growing faster than the gray wolf population is the number of obstructionist environmental groups and their lawyers. Environmental obstructionists found a federal judge in Missoula that was willing to ignore the scientific evidence as well as the expert opinions of on-the-ground wildlife managers here in Montana. And he ruled last August that the grey wolf had to remain on the Endangered Species List.

When I first heard his decision, like many of you I wanted to take action immediately. I asked: how can we put some of these judicial activists on the Endangered Species List? I am still working on that! But in the meantime, I have introduced legislation that would permanently end federal jurisdiction over the gray wolf population – and return responsibility to the wildlife managers here in Montana.

Soon after the speech (or after a call from the media for comments) the lefties and the environmentalists hit the web with their objections. The Montana Democrats posted this message on Twitter: “Did Congressman Rehebrg make a veiled threat against federal judges today at the #MTLeg?” (Yes, they misspelled his name).

Others said his words were “inexcusable” and some commentators on websites said Rehberg “should be arrested” for the remarks.

Child please…

Look for the video to be out soon and I’d bet the script is already written. It’s just “gotcha” politics and something we might as well get used to in the upcoming 21 months. If we’re going to keep score on remarks that can be taken out of context during these next 21 months, we’re going to need a bigger scoreboard.

But most importantly, it’s a stretch to say Rehberg threatened a Federal judge.

Instead of the Montana media writing stories about he said/she said crap, hopefully they will devote their time to questions about why our country has spent more money in the last two plus years than any time in history, why our unemployment rate remains high, why gas prices are creeping up, why veterans unemployment is the highest in five years and what the candidates will do to bring down the debt – and those questions are just the tip of the iceberg – if they care to venture into real reporting during the 2012 election cycle.