Thanks Max!

[jryoung]

My buddy summed up the situation quite well.

Pardon my verbiage, I'm having fun with this one.

So while I've heard belly-aching from the President, VP, Legislators, anti-gun NGOs and shockingly the media in a fairly consistent complaint about how unconscionable not passing the bill and subsequent amendments last week.

There are a number of excuses including the power of the gun lobby, Republican's are evil, spineless, soulless, ect., and the ever dreaded, unconstitutional, and antiquated 60-vote requirement for the filibuster.

Let me address the last to the best of my knowledge.

The votes to invoke cloture (overcome a filibuster) were there. The decision to require 60-votes on these bills was made by Senate leadership, i.e. Democrats, in order to avoid floor debate on the bill and subsequent amendments. So when the Manchin-Toomey amendment regarding background checks, for the 11% of firearms purchased face-to-face or at the feared and reviled gun show, failed, the fault lied at the feet of the majority party who made the decision to require additional votes.

So why would Senate leadership opt to avoid floor debate and potential success of opposition party amendments, especially considering Senator Cruz was offering amendments to include mental health indicators to improve the NICS system and solve an issue that may have prevented Aurora and Virginia Tech. Both those shooters purchased their firearms through a FFL with a NICS background check despite both had been flagged by mental health professionals. This is a flaw in the current system, but clearly that amendment by Senator Cruz wouldn't cause Senate leadership to flinch, it's supportive of limiting who can buy firearms.

Well, the Cornyn amendment is likely the primary reason for the 60-vote threshold. This amendment would have created CCW reciprocity. So if you have a CCW permit/license it would be valid in all jurisdictions. Basically, the Senate Democrats derailed their whole gun package over a fear of LICENSED gun-owners.

Just another perspective on what happened. It wasn't arcane procedural rules or the gun lobby or the Republicans, it was a political error made to prevent bipartisan participation and prevent an open debate on the Senate floor.

 

[Frenchy]

looks like Max may be retiring.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/23/max-baucus-retiring_n_3138758.html

 

[Pierre]

Yes, seems to be true.

 

[Rat Fink]

Good Riddance. Although it would feel better to vote him out but the end result is the same.

 

[BigHornRam]

Dang. Just when Max was starting to make some sense, they had to throw him under the bus. What a shame.

 

[BigHornRam]

http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/...cle_9e102312-ab05-11e2-a358-001a4bcf887a.html

George is left of MSNBC, but it's fun read anyway. The adaptation to the greatful dead song is clever too!

 

[RobG]

I just hope Senator Schwietzer doesn't bring up that "dog don't hunt" thing again.

 

[BigHornRam]

"I just hope Senator Schwietzer doesn't bring up that "dog don't hunt" thing again."

Getting ahead of yourself there buddy!

Schweitzer's a bit of a loose cannon. Who ever the Democrats select to run, they better not dis Obama like Max did.

Just sayin......

 

[RobG]

"I just hope Senator Schwietzer doesn't bring up that "dog don't hunt" thing again."

Getting ahead of yourself there buddy!

Schweitzer's a bit of a loose cannon. Who ever the Democrats select to run, they better not dis Obama like Max did.

Just sayin......

Oh you know he is feeling lonely out of the limelight and he'd probably win. Who else would run on the D side? Maybe Daines would go for the R side since there's no incumbent and he'd stand a good chance of winning.

 

[bjtc_brian]

I'm interested to se if Seiben stays in block management after he retires. I know John had bullets flying by his house in the no shooting zone a couple of years ago. Figured when Max was done, so would be the BM.

 

[BigHornRam]

Oh you know he is feeling lonely out of the limelight and he'd probably win. Who else would run on the D side? Maybe Daines would go for the R side since there's no incumbent and he'd stand a good chance of winning.

Looks like Schweitzer is pretty busy right now trying to take over the Stillwater Mine.......

http://missoulian.com/news/state-an...cle_48c0b97c-ab7c-11e2-941b-0019bb2963f4.html

A group of occupy wall street types are busy raising cash to lure Schweitzer into the race, we'll see if he takes them up on it.

 

[RobG]

Looks like Schweitzer is pretty busy right now trying to take over the Stillwater Mine.......

http://missoulian.com/news/state-an...cle_48c0b97c-ab7c-11e2-941b-0019bb2963f4.html

A group of occupy wall street types are busy raising cash to lure Schweitzer into the race, we'll see if he takes them up on it.

Brian is already figuring how to make it work in his head. He figures Stillwater is just practice for taking over and fixing Iran. And if he can establish a tolerance zone for bison, why not Palestinians? The other side is trying to get Racicot recruited.

 

[noharleyyet]

He should switch affilliation, move to Texas and unseat Perry the hair model. I'd vote for him soley for shooting skeeter the finger.

 

[Desert Sheep]

There were a bunch of letters to the editor in the Helena paper today about how his vote on the background checks was wrong and one from a Newtown Mom thanking Jester for voting for it. I assume they grouped these together for one edition.

I think the Democrat machine is just making room for the former goverenor B.S. to run. Cripes, he's a bigger bufoon than Jester.