In case you missed the May 1, 2011, edition of Newsweek, Montana’s junior senator, Jon Tester, was featured. You can check it out HERE.

In a story titled, “The Democrats’ Last, Best Hope” Newsweek reporter Andrew Romano writes,

“Sen. Jon Tester hunts, farms, has seven fingers, and could well determine his party’s fate in 2012. So why are they calling him a sellout?”

Personally, I think that’s what Tester wants. He wants to carve out a spot in the middle for the 2012 election and quietly convince his far lefties, “Pssst…I’ll have your back as soon as this election is over.”

The big question is can Tester sell this to his base supporters? Or will they start thinking he’s just another junior milquetoast version of Max Baucus (Montana’s senior senator who has been in Washington since cows were allowed to graze on the White House lawn, almost) and somehow he convinces Montanans (especially those in the middle) to send him back election after election.

Even some of Tester’s Montana supporters from 2006 are leaning the other way. Newsweek reported:

“I’m tired of the triangulation,” says Paul Edwards, a Montana environmentalist (and part-time Los Angeleno) who raised $50,000 for Tester in 2006. “You know, ‘He’s the best we’ve got. The others would be too terrible.’ Well, let ’em be terrible. Better the enemy I know than the enemy I thought was my friend.”

Ouch. The left is ticked…but they say things like this about Max Baucus every six years. Tester and Baucus are probably giggling about it every Wednesday over coffee and donuts at Max’s place.

There are just so many questions:

-Will the far-left supporters be as obliged to round up folks to register to vote late in the day to help put Tester over the top in this election, like they did in 2006?

-How much free booze and free food will it take in 2012 (Election Day registering makes one thirsty and hungry).

-Will the Governor make some calls late on Election Day like he claims he did in 2006, to seal the victory?

-Will we see Obama and Tester campaigning together in Montana? Harry Reid?

It could spell major trouble for Tester if the ground troops don’t form, but what’s really funny is that it looks like the progressives are finally discovering that they got behind the wrong candidate for senator in 2006.

Will they stick with him like they have Max Baucus or start over?