Paranoia has reached absurd stages…I sneezed in front of my laptop and the anti-virus started a scan on its own.

Today’s independent commentary deals with these people/issues:

• Mike Cooney
• Big Money Mitch
• Donald Trump
• Nancy Pelosi

MIKE COONEY:

Lt. Governor and current Governor candidate Mike Cooney screwed up. How big a screw-up he committed is yet to be determined.

MTN News reported Monday that Cooney used his Capitol office last month to participate in a campaign conference call. MTN News added that it’s a possible violation of state law.

What may be seen as the first test during the campaign, Team Cooney did not handle it well.

MTN reported that Cooney campaign manager Emily Harris said Monday that circulation of the picture of Cooney on the call “is nothing more than an attempt to distract voters from what really matters in this election: electing a governor with tested leadership Montanans can trust.”

Then, according to MTN, Cooney’s campaign said the call is an “isolated incident” because Cooney was on a tight schedule between meetings, and needing to be on a subsequent tele-town hall with Gov. Steve Bullock on the Covid-19 crisis.

Elected officials running for another office should always do the work they are being paid by the taxpayers to do first. Campaigning should always be second. It’s that simple. Someone like Cooney who has a lifetime of public service should know that.

MTN News reported that no ethics complaint has been filed against Cooney related to the call. I imagine that will change. It’s nothing personal; it’s just politics.

BIG MONEY MITCH:

The Washington Examiner is reporting that the super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is investing a sizable $10.1 million in Montana as Republicans move to rebuff the expanding Democratic threat to GOP control of the Senate. The Senate Leadership Fund is reserving television advertising to air across Montana beginning Sept. 8 that will run for the balance of the fall campaign, an official with the super PAC told the Washington Examiner on Monday.

If I were Daines, I would be scared that if I am a few points down headed into September, that Mitch McConnell will pull his funding and use it in another state.

It’s not like it has never happened before…

DONALD TRUMP:

On Twitter, I follow some of the great White House reporters and when they started tweeting Monday about President Donald Trump talking about taking hydroxychloroquine and a zinc supplement daily to protect against the coronavirus, I thought they had lost their minds.

I was wrong; it was the President who went over the deep end. He’s been taking it for about a week and a half.

As the Associated Press reported Trump is taking it despite warnings from his own government that it should only be administered for COVID-19 in a hospital or research setting due to potentially fatal side effects.

According to the AP, Trump said, “I started taking it, because I think it’s good. I’ve heard a lot of good stories.”

It sounds like something I heard back in the 1970s.

I suspect many of his followers will try to obtain hydroxychloroquine. Who knows how many will die because the President could not keep his mouth shut about taking it.

I hope that people close to Trump monitor him closely. Some of the side effects are mood changes, feeling nervous or irritable. Keep him away from the nuke codes!

Just when we think we’ve seen it all from this President, he says, “Hold my beer and watch this!”

NANCY PELOSI:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Monday evening and was asked about President Donald Trump taking hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for coronavirus.

According to The Hill, Pelosi responded with:

“I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group and in his, shall we say, weight group, morbidly obese, they say. So, I think that it’s not a good idea.”

Point to Speaker Pelosi. The hashtag #morbidlyobese was trending on Twitter for most of the evening.

I’m sure the Pelosi haters will be out in force and calling for her to be impeached (which she can’t).

Maybe a better answer would be that taking the drug is between the President and his doctor, but I doubt Trump would have taken the high road if asked the same question about Pelosi.

Politics is a contact sport and, although some can’t stand her, there are not many who play the political game better than Pelosi.

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