First rule of politics:  you can’t win unless you’re on the ballot.  Second rule: If you run, you may lose.  And, if you tie, you do not win.  -Donald Rumsfeld

U.S. Senator Jon Tester (Democrat) rejected Congressman Denny Rehberg’s (Republican) counteroffer on Tuesday regarding campaign donations.  I enjoyed the jockeying and now we can all sit back and watch for even more fun and games over the next nine months.

Yesterday I predicted that Tester would agree to Rehberg’s plan right after Tester became a vegetarian…

All this is happening even before we have a primary election (June 5), so they are not actual opponents just yet.

Rehberg had presented Tester with a plan to take campaign donations only from Montanans and return all other donations (which might have left Tester with a negative balance).  I thought they might agree to take donations only from third-generation (and above) Montanans on odd-numbered days, but that never happened.

Tester started the fun last week when he asked Rehberg to agree to bar third-party advertisements in their race.

It was a good stunt by Tester and a good counter-stunt by Rehberg.  They both scored some points, so I would say it ended in a tie – there’s no winner.  Both sides will be able to use some of the fodder to raise money by telling us how bad the other person is for Montana.

Of course, those nasty third-party groups (for both sides) can use this for their ads and mailers – so just about everyone went home happy yesterday.