Jim Hunt, the Democratic candidate for U.S. House, is a trial lawyer. At least that’s what Mr. Al Smith of the Montana Trial Lawyers Association told the listeners of Montana Public Radio Tuesday night on Montana Evening Edition (February 19 version).

By the way, the commentary was called, “Yes, Hunt is a Trial Lawyer” and the transcript can be viewed HERE.

Mr. Smith said, “The trial lawyer bashing was no surprise, given the decades long campaign by corporations and their GOP lap dogs to paint trial lawyers as evil doers on par with communists.”

Communists? Ouch.

I’m not a lawyer and I don’t even play one on TV. But, I do watch episodes of “Law and Order” on occasion, and I do know some good lawyer jokes. So I think that gives me just enough expertise to comment on the commentary.

I really don’t see the big deal about a person’s occupation. Hasn’t John Edwards done very well as a trial lawyer? Max Baucus is a Stanford-educated lawyer. Jack Abramoff is a lawyer, or at least he was.

It kind of seemed to me that this “commentary” was a hidden campaign commercial for Jim Hunt. Legally, I guess that’s fine as long as it’s called that. I’m sure some lawyer somewhere would be happy to check into it. Maybe a corporate attorney.

Mr. Smith said that the Montana GOP called Mr. Hunt a trial lawyer. Damn them. I did not hear or read that, but I read where they called Mr. Hunt a “personal injury lawyer” in a press release. Hunt calls himself a “consumer lawyer” on his website, and now Mr. Al Smith has called him a “trial lawyer.”

Now, we “non-lawyers” are really confused. We are now left to wonder, “What is he?” Truthfully, most folks couldn’t care less. A lawyer is a lawyer until you need one. Then we look in the Yellow Pages for one. My apologies to my attorney friends (all one of you).

One thing I do wonder is when will Montana Public Radio give the GOP side the opportunity to respond, since it now appears we’re using non-profit, government-subsidized-public-radio for campaign supporters to air their views. I’m sure everyone affiliated with Montana Public Radio will want to be fair.

I’m sure someone, somewhere, is checking on that right now. They may even have a law degree.