Today John Walsh will take the oath to become Montana’s newest United States Senator. Congratulations to Senator Walsh.

According the VoteVets.org, “Walsh will now be the first Iraq veteran to ever serve in the Senate” and that can only be described as a great thing. If you’ve read my columns very much, you know that I believe that the more veterans we have serving in Congress, the better our country will be.

Republicans, both statewide and national, have cried foul over the process and created a cute website and videos to show their displeasure. Even some in the media thought that Governor Steve Bullock had “deflected reporters’ questions about what sort of process he intended to use to fill the Senate seat.”

It’s kind of sour grapes.

In reality the process of picking a new United States senator is pretty vague in the Montana Code:

13-25-202. Vacancy in office of United States senator. (1) If a vacancy occurs in the office of United States senator, an election to fill the vacancy shall be held at the next general election. If the election is invalid or not held at that time, the election to fill the vacancy shall be held at the next succeeding general election.
(2) The governor may make a temporary appointment to fill the vacancy until the election.

Basically, there’s more information and guidance on how to appoint a State poet laureate than a U.S. senator in Montana.

I think the Great Falls Tribune may have said it best in their “The Edge” column on Saturday:

Republicans on Friday blasted Bullock for naming his lieutenant governor to replace Baucus, accusing the governor of embracing “back-room deals from Washington,” although the GOP probably would have done something similar with a Republican governor at the helm.

The Tribune is correct. About the only thing I have to add to that is if the Montana GOP wants to be in a position to have the authority to appoint people when there is a vacancy, then they need to encourage candidates to run who have a chance of winning a gubernatorial race in Montana. The GOP lost the last three governor’s races – and will probably lose the fourth.

On Monday’s “Voices of Montana” radio program, host Aaron Flint said the “Big Sky Buy-Off” was basically complete with the selection of Walsh. I disagree. For the “Big Sky Buy-Off” to be complete, Walsh must win his election in November.

I will always believe that the minute Max Baucus decided not to run for re-election the wheels of the Democrats (President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) in Washington started in motion working on how to best keep the seat in the Democrats’ column. When Brian Schweitzer said no thanks on a run for senate, the wheels started spinning a little more quickly to keep the seat.

And that is how Max Baucus became Ambassador China, and John Walsh became the interim senator for Montana.

It’s funny to watch as almost everyone has an opinion about the “Big Sky Buy-Off.” For example, Dave Parker, who is an associate professor of political science at Montana State University, chimed in with “A Memo to Senator Walsh.”

It does not appear that Parker understands how an official senate office operates.

Probably the biggest problem Walsh faces is that he is already stained due to problems when he was in charge of the Montana National Guard. Republicans (and some of his fellow Democrats) have done a good job in bringing him down. Walsh was the third or fourth choice and he’s been hit with a lot of negative press. I don’t see any excitement from the Democrats about Walsh.

A Great Falls Tribune poll asked a pretty simple question the other day:  “Do you have confidence in Lt. Gov. John Walsh as he takes over for new ambassador Max Baucus?”

There were 431 votes in the unscientific poll, and by a 64% to 35% margin people said “No.”

Although it’s an unscientific poll, I imagine it’s pretty accurate at the present time.

The “confidence” factor may be something that even the “Big Sky Buy-Off” can’t repair.

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