It’s Hump Day! Congrats! Here are the topics for today’s independent commentary:

• Cascade County Republicans
• U.S. Senate Montana 2024
• Fight Club
• Football Roundup
• One More Thing

CASCADE COUNTY REPUBLICANS:

With the Republicans basically running everything in Cascade County, I figured it was just a matter of time before they imploded. That time may be starting to happen.

The Daily Montanan reported yesterday that although the Cascade County Commission is made up of three Republicans, two voted Tuesday in a first step to change how leadership of the board is selected amid concerns about the current chairperson, Rae Grulkowski, who was elected on a far-right platform.

It was also reported by the Daily Montanan that the proposed change among the three Republicans is representative of the ideological differences between the old-guard conservatives and far-right conspiracists in the county. This shake-up also comes after differences about how to manage elections in the county after controversy, missteps and resident concerns about newly elected Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant. Merchant is known in the community as an election denier.

Some of the MAGA officeholders (far-right conspiracists) in the county remind me of the dog that caught the car.

I hope the Cascade County Commissioners take away the election duties from Merchant. It’s the commonsense thing to do.

Read the complete article from the Daily Montanan HERE.

U.S. SENATE MONTANA 2024:

Yesterday I mentioned the Last Best Place PAC is running a political attack ad that you’ve probably seen that says Montana Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy “… does business in the Cayman Islands—a place where millionaires like him go to skip out on paying their taxes.”

Today I read a commentary from Peter D. Fox with the headline, “There’s a whole lot more Montana better know about Sheehy.”

I agree with Fox about this. There are many questions. Fox writes:

Perhaps most perplexing is: How did a junior Navy officer jump from active duty to establishing Bridger Aerospace in the same month, according to his own resume? Where did the grubstake come from? Certainly not from saving his Academy midshipman and active duty pay.

Fox closes his commentary with:

Voter beware! Before Montana gets too far down the campaign trail, we deserve to know more about Tim Sheehy.

Check out the full article by clicking HERE.

FIGHT CLUB:

The Associated Press and almost everyone else reported about the congressional hearing that devolved into an angry confrontation between a senator and a witness on Tuesday after Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma challenged Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to “stand your butt up” and settle longstanding differences right there in the room.

Markwayne…I think I met his brother Jim Bob a few years ago. Just kiddin.

As for Markwayne Mullin, he better watch out messing with the Teamsters. Jimmy Hoffa would probably tell him to back off…

Then we have “kidney shot” Kevin McCarthy. Rolling Stone reports:

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reportedly shoved Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett while the latter was speaking to NPR’s Claudia Grisales on Tuesday, leading to a tense confrontation between the two lawmakers.
Shortly after the incident, Burchett told CNN that McCarthy had hit him with “a clean shot to the kidneys.”
“I got elbowed in the back and it kind of caught me off guard […] I turned back and there was Kevin,” he said. “For a minute I was kind of ‘what the heck just happened’ and then I chased after him of course.” Burchett added that, in his view, McCarthy is a “bully with 17 million dollars and a security detail.”

Decorum in the House and the Senate has gone down the toilet. I think Donald Trump coming on the scene changed the way people behave.

FOOTBALL ROUNDUP:

Last week, I went 6-4 in the college pigskin pick contest and 9-5 in the NFL pigskin pick contest.

The Montana State Bobcats (8-2/6-1) head to Missoula to take on Montana (9-1/6-1) in the Brawl of the Wild game. The winner will be the Big Sky Conference champion. Montana is ranked #3 in the country and Montana State #4. The game is Saturday at noon.

In a Super Bowl rematch, the Philadelphia Eagles (8-1) head to Kansas City to take on my Chiefs (7-2). The game is Monday night. The Chiefs will need to play one of their best games of the season to beat the Eagles, who have the Super Bowl loss as extra motivation to beat the Chiefs.

There are just two major college games that have my attention: The #11 Missouri Tigers (8-2) take on the Florida Gators (5-5). The #2 Georgia takes on #13 Tennessee.

The NAIA Football playoffs start this weekend. The Frontier Conference has three teams in the playoffs:

• Montana Tech plays Dickenson State in Butte. (Source)
• Montana Western (9-1) received a first-round bye.
• The College of Idaho received a bye.

More information can be found HERE.

ONE MORE THING:

Get your relatives speaking to one another again by sending a heartfelt Christmas card with a picture of your family with an extra child nobody knows…

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