Today John Walsh will take the oath to become Montana’s newest United States Senator. Congratulations to Senator Walsh.

According the VoteVets.org, “Walsh will now be the first Iraq veteran to ever serve in the Senate” and that can only be described as a great thing. If you’ve read my columns very much, you know that I believe that the more veterans we have serving in Congress, the better our country will be.

Republicans, both statewide and national, have cried foul over the process and created a cute website and videos to show their displeasure. Even some in the media thought that Governor Steve Bullock had “deflected reporters’ questions about what sort of process he intended to use to fill the Senate seat.”

It’s kind of sour grapes.

In reality the process of picking a new United States senator is pretty vague in the Montana Code:

13-25-202. Vacancy in office of United States senator. (1) If a vacancy occurs in the office of United States senator, an election to fill the vacancy shall be held at the next general election. If the election is invalid or not held at that time, the election to fill the vacancy shall be held at the next succeeding general election.
(2) The governor may make a temporary appointment to fill the vacancy until the election.

Basically, there’s more information and guidance on how to appoint a State poet laureate than a U.S. senator in Montana.

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