Welcome to Monday and Monday Morning Politics!  Happy Columbus Day, too!

Monday Morning Politics is brought to you by number 29 today – there are just 29 days until General Election Day (Nov. 6) and this week absentee ballots are being mailed here in Montana. Oh my…

Today I take a look at debate Monday, Firefighters, an Avalanche of Articles, the Monument Issue, a Personal View, and The Message. There’s more so read on…

Debate Monday:

Tonight is the first televised debate between incumbent U.S. Senator Jon Tester and challenger U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg.

According to this website, “The debate is being held in front of a live audience at the Petro Theater on the campus of MSU-Billings.” It begins at 7:00 p.m. and is being televised on Montana PBS.

That brings up three things: 1. Why schedule a debate during Monday Night Football? Duh. 2. Libertarian Dan Cox should be allowed to participate. 3. Those attending (for both sides) should mind their manners and be nice (or I may show up next time and knock some heads).

Of course, follow me on Twitter during the debate @TheWesternWord for my independent views, and I will write about it in my Tuesday column. Please send me your comments and observations about the debate to my e-mail at western_word@Yahoo.com (you can remain anonymous).

Firefighters:

In case you missed it, supporters of Senator Jon Tester and Tester himself hit Denny Rehberg pretty hard with three ads about firefighters and the lawsuit that Rehberg filed against the Billings Fire Department.

Seems like a repeat of the firefighter issue of 2006 and many people who watch these races may be asking themselves why the GOP has such problems with firefighters…

Politico picked up the story and rated it #1 of the five biggest developments in Senate races in their Friday column. You can read the story and see the videos HERE.

Avalanche of Articles:

Since this week is when the Montana absentee ballots are mailed to voters, the newspapers around the state devoted a lot of space to the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Tester, his challengers Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg, and Libertarian Dan Cox. Here are some:

-The Great Falls Tribune published an article called, “Senate Showdown” on Sunday.

-The Associated Press has a story about the senate race that was picked up by several newspapers across the country. It’s called, “Close Race for Montana Senator amid Obama Drag” and can be found HERE.

-The Associated Press also published a story about “Conservative voters receive poll calls pushing Libertarian candidate Cox in US Senate race” that you can read HERE.

-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie campaigned in Montana on Friday. The Associated Press covered it with a story titled, “NJ Gov. Christie calls Sen. Tester a ‘phony’ who turned back on Montana.”  You can read it HERE.

I heard a rumor that Republicans  took several photos of Christie to use in their fledgling Photoshop department…

Monument Issue Returns:

The U.S. House office of Congressman Denny Rehberg sent me an e-mail Saturday morning with the subject, “Stopping A Monumental Obama Land Grab” in which they said, “In April, I helped the House pass the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act” and the bill contained a section saying “any new National Monument designation in Montana would have to be approved by our governor and our legislature.”

Rehberg then said, “The House of Representatives sent this bill over to the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave it to Montana’s Junior Senator Jon Tester to re-write. He quietly removed the portion of the bill that protected us from an Obama land grab, and then called for a vote.”

The Great Falls Tribune covered the story HERE.

This is a good tactic for Rehberg to use in the campaign – it will help him in the election with rural voters, landowners, and the folks who feel the Federal Government overreaches with land-grabs across the west, plus it will help him gain support from the voters who live in underground bunkers…

A Personal View of Tester:

During campaign season we often don’t get to see the real candidates. The candidates are defined by their opponent or by outside groups.

In Saturday’s Great Falls Tribune a lady named Melody Wall, who is a kindergarten teacher in Helena, wrote about her relationship with U.S. Senator Jon Tester and his family. Wall says she had a “challenging childhood” and ended up being friends with Tester’s daughter. The Tester family took her in and changed her life. Read it HERE.

Wall’s view gave readers a glimpse of who she considers the real Jon Tester – and it’s something that is refreshing in the Senate campaign that is being defined by negative ads.

This column by Melody Wall is a keeper and something that the Tester campaign should spread around the state to give a different view of Jon Tester.

A Message:

The Montana Cowgirl Blog posted some Twitter comments from the private Twitter account of Bowen Greenwood, who has a day job that is a lot like herding cats. Greenwood is the Executive Director of the Montana Republican Party.

Cowgirl writes, “One of the most important issues on the minds of voters this year is jobs and the economy. Yet here’s a sampling of recent tweets from the head of the Montana Republican Party. Draw your own conclusions.”

Greenwood’s Tweets from his personal account mostly deal with Jesus, love, and the Bible. The comments on the Cowgirl blog about his Tweets number well over 100. My “conclusion” is that Greenwood has done a good job spreading the “Good News.” I have been following Greenwood on Twitter for several months and hope he continues to spread the good news when he’s not herding cats. (Mark 13:13).