Happy Washington’s Birthday 2012!  If you are one of the fortunate ones to have the day off, congratulations!

Almost every Monday (even on holidays) I gather a lot of the political stories from the past weekend and put them all in one place for all to see – and I often add a little commentary!

Today I take a look at the best recent Presidents, charging $93 billion, out of state money, letting it flow, Decision 2012 coverage, Stolen Valor, rural voting, and to Russia with Max!  There’s a lot more…

Reagan/Clinton:

Since today is Washington’s Birthday (sometimes called Presidents Day), the first story deals with a recent Gallup Poll that tells us “Americans believe history will judge Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton as the best among recent U.S. presidents, with at least 6 in 10 saying each will go down in history as an above-average or outstanding president.”  Read the whole poll HERE.

It’s tough to judge a President until there’s some time to look back at what he accomplished.

I like Reagan and Harry Truman.

The $93 Billion Charge:

In what was probably a blow to the Tea Party movement, the House and the Senate voted to charge $93 billion on the government credit card when they passed the conference report to accompany H.R. 3630.

The conference report passed the House 293-132.  Congressman Denny Rehberg voted YEA.  It passed the Senate 60-36 with Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester voting YEA.

According to this story, 24 Tea Party members voted “yes” on the bill, 36 members cast “no” votes.  The quote of the day goes to Representative Joe Barton, a member of the Tea Party Caucus who said, “We are taking money away from the Social Security Trust Fund and we’re substituting an IOU that may or may not ever be repaid.”

While I agreed with most of the provisions in the bill, it should have been offset by cuts elsewhere.  To get our debt under control, we have to stop using the credit card – especially for 93 billion dollar purchases.  It’s that simple.

If you call yourself “fiscally conservative” then you should be fiscally conservative all the time and not change during election time.

Out of State Money:

The Associated Press (AP) did “an analysis” of where U.S. Senator Jon Tester and Congressman Denny Rehberg are getting their campaign money.   Rehberg has filed for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Tester.

In other words, the AP reporter checked Google and a couple of websites that keep track of campaign donations.  Then he wrote a story about it.

One interesting thing I saw from the story was that Tester has raised more money from individual contributors from Montana than Rehberg ($840,000 to $286,000).  I think that’s probably an embarrassment for Republican Rehberg.

With Rehberg severely lagging in the fundraising war, it might be time for a new finance director or at least a new fundraising plan.

Let it flow, let it flow, let it flow…

The Associated Press reported, “The Supreme Court on Friday blocked a Montana court ruling upholding limits on corporate campaign spending.”

Yes, that’s the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).  Basically SCOTUS put “the Montana ruling on hold while they consider an appeal from corporations seeking to be free of spending limits.”  That means it’s not a done deal yet.

I’ve always thought it was a freedom of speech issue, but there needs to be rules and lots of sunshine.  The end game may be that the antiquated 1912 Corrupt Practices Act in Montana will need to be rewritten.

In the meantime, let it (money) flow…

Freaking Gas Prices:

Since I have not filled up the tank on my vehicle for about two years, with what I am reading it looks like it may be even longer.  The Associated Press reported, “Gasoline prices have never been higher this time of the year.”

Thank you elected officials – you’re an epic failure.

Experts say they might hit $4.25 a gallon by late April – great googly moogly.

It will be a tough year for incumbents.

Decision 2012:

The Great Falls Tribune is attempting to get a head start on campaign 2012 with the unveiling of the “Decision 2012” page on their website.  You can read the editorial HERE.

They also have a “Just the Fax” page where they post “political news releases, in their original unedited form.”  It will be interesting to watch all the propaganda that hits the Tribune newsroom from the candidates over the next few months.

Looks like all they need now is a couple of people who actually understand politics and campaigns to do the reporting…

Stolen Valor Act:

The Stolen Valor Act comes up before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday and, as a veteran, I hope the Court upholds the Act.

For those not familiar with the act, according to this article:

It makes it a federal misdemeanor offense to falsely represent oneself as having received any U.S. military decoration or medal.  If convicted, defendants may be imprisoned for up to six months, unless the decoration lied about is the Medal of Honor, in which case imprisonment could be up to one year.

Some believe the Act tramples on freedom of speech.  Maybe it’s time we draw the line about telling lies and say that lying about the military medals one received crosses the line.

Rural Voters:

The Montana CBS folks aired another part of their story “Battleground Montana” and this time they took at look at rural votes.

One (big) thing that was missed by the local CBS reporter is that she did not mention that Jon Tester lives in a rural area.  Tester also failed to win his home county in 2006.

After all the interviews and talk, the best line was “Every vote counts.”

To Russia with Max:

Montana Senator Max Baucus took a junket to Russia on Friday and apparently returns on Wednesday.  Supposedly it’s to talk about trade issues and the old fallback reason to spend taxpayer money for overseas trips, “good-paying jobs.”

In the video announcing the junket, Baucus talks about looking people in the eye when dealing with them (while he reads the script and does not look at the camera).  It is one of the worst videos from a politician you will ever see.  As of this morning only 17 people had watched it.

Schweitzer to Ireland:

More travel is scheduled for Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer.  According to this story, he’s headed to Ireland for the 1848 Tricolour Celebration, which is March 9-11 in Waterford City.

Follow Jack on Twitter @TheWesternWord.