Sometimes it seems that the louder someone claims sainthood, the bigger the horns they are hiding. ­ ― Steve Maraboli

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

• Greg Gianforte
• Matt Rosendale
• If you watch/read one thing…
• One More Thing

GREG GIANFORTE:

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte held his first press conference as Montana Governor on Tuesday. When it ended, I had to congratulate him via Twitter:

Congrats to @GovGianforte for not assaulting any reporters during his first press conference. Onward and upward! 

The other big news is that Gianforte announced that he would lift the statewide mask mandate. Lee Newspapers reported:

Montana’s new Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte on Tuesday said he will remove the statewide mask mandate once the most vulnerable are vaccinated and the Legislature creates liability protections for local businesses, churches and others.

I hope that counties tell Gianforte to take a hike and keep the mask mandate in place.

I predicted that Gianforte would mirror the leadership of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, which seems to be the survival of the fittest and a laissez-faire belief. It looks like doing away with the mask mandate is step one.

Meanwhile, Lee Newspapers reported:

Montana reported 834 new COVID-19 cases, and the COVID-19 related deaths of 30 more people Tuesday in an update to the state case mapping and information website. The new cases reported on Tuesday are the most reported in a single day in Montana since Dec. 12 when 974 cases were reported. The new cases bring the active case total in the state to 4,924. The state death total reached 1,005 people on Tuesday.

I expect the daily case count to increase under Gianforte’s leadership, but we’ll have more freedom – even if you need a ventilator to breathe.

MATT ROSENDALE:

Matt Rosendale knows who butters his bread. He does not want to tick off Donald Trump, Trump, Jr., and Trump supporters.

Rosendale is the new (and only) U.S. House member from Montana and since he just took office he gets to take part in the certification of presidential electors today (Wednesday). In case you are looking for him, Rosendale will be the guy sitting in the back because he is ranked near the bottom of seniority.

The Associated Press (AP) reported that Montana’s lone member of the U.S. House said Tuesday he will join other Republican lawmakers in opposing the certification of presidential electors from “certain disputed states.” “It is clear that there are widespread, credible allegations of fraud and irregularities in many states, and that these allegations have endangered the American people’s faith in our electoral process,” Rosendale said in a statement.

There wasn’t any fraud or irregularities and with 60 court cases decided against Trump, Rosendale can oppose the certification all he wants, but Joe Biden will still be the President on January 20. The sad thing is that Rosendale is not man enough to stand up against the conspiracy nuts in his party.

IF YOU WATCH/READ ONE THING…

MTN News did a report titled “Montana’s Congressional delegation weighs in on Electoral College challenge.”

Apparently, MTN News is growing tired of the bullshit being shoveled by U.S. Senator Steve Daines and U.S. Representative Matt Rosendale.

Read/Watch HERE.

ONE MORE THING:

By now you have heard about President Donald Trump trying to call Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and convince him to find some 11,780 votes to help him beat Joe Biden in Georgia.

There are several reports that the White House switchboard tried to call Raffensperger 18 times.

Bloomberg Politics found out why and reported the following:

The call was weeks in the making. The White House switchboard had previously placed 18 calls to a press phone line in Raffensperger’s office, but didn’t get through because an intern monitoring the line thought it was a prank, one official familiar with the matter said. The official asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The intern deserves a medal…

## WEAR A MASK ##