I always like it when a newspaper story has a question in the headline just begging for an answer. For example, the Missoula Independent recently did a story about Congressman Denny Rehberg titled, “Can this man be beaten?”

The short answer is “Nope.”

The democrats will have to go back to the drawing board to find a viable opponent to run against Rehberg…next time. I think the current candidate is like the eighth or ninth person mentioned as an opponent, and he was not asked by the party, he just told them he was running.

Of course the Democrats won’t back down this election season even if some of their leaders feel it may be a few years before they can find the “right person” to take on Rehberg. They will try to paint Rehberg as a “lap dog” for President Bush and the Republican Party, although Montana’s two Democratic senators vote party-line over 88% of the time. Rehberg has fought the Bush Administration on several issues like Amtrak funding, water projects funding, funding cuts for mineral leases, and Essential Air Service funding. It appears for Rehberg, Montana does come first.

In the elections, Rehberg has basically steam-rolled over all the candidates the Montana Democrats have put in his way, winning by substantial margins ever since his initial run for the open seat against Nancy Keenan, who he beat by 21,000 votes, according to the story.

One thing for sure is that Rehberg won’t take his next election for granted because of a positive article from a weekly newspaper in a city that is one of most liberal in Montana. He’ll work just as hard to win this race as he did in 2000 against Keenan.

The story correctly portrays Rehberg as a person who genuinely cares about his state and constituents. He is on the road almost every day he’s in the state attending and holding meetings in his congressional district, which is the whole state of Montana. One wonders how Rehberg has the energy to keep up this hectic pace. Montanans like hard workers. They see this in Rehberg, who puts service above self, and they like it enough to send him back to Washington time after time to represent them.

2008 will be no different.