Conrad Burns Attacks Farmers

There'll be a load of compromisin'
On the road to my horizon
But I'm gonna be where the lights are shinin' on me

Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo
Rhinestone cowboy
Gettin' cards and letters from people I don't even know
And offers comin' over the phone
-Glenn Cambell

Conrad Burns is the ultimate rhinestone cowboy. He acts like he is a rancher from Montana but he really is a radio man from Missouri. When he first ran for Senate, he vowed to only serve two terms so that he wouldn't become corrupted, but he is now running for his fourth term and is rightly considered to be the most corrupt politician in Washington.

He is betraying his western persona with his DC message.

Our Junior Senator is a classy guy. Consider these two pieces from his stump speech as reported in today's Tribune:

The closest he came to admitting the existence of Democrat Jon Tester, a Big Sandy farmer, was when it came to talking about his own role on the powerful Appropriations Committee in providing federal drought relief funds.

"I provided the money," Burns said. "He took the checks."

Eric Coobs wrote up this quote the other day. I actually thought when Coobs wrote that this is about farm aid that he must be kidding. Burns couldn't really be claiming credit for the federal government helping farmers in the state and implying that those farmers must never challenge him as a result. That would be too much. Rather, Burns must be arguing that he provided a lot of money to Montana and as a legislator, Tester took the money for Montana's budget.

Looks like I was wrong. It appears Conrad Burns really does think that Montana farmers are personally indebted to him since he "provided the money." No wonder Conrad's folks think there is nothing wrong with the INSA slush fund. Big Boy Burns provides the money. Why shouldn't he get a slush fund?

Statements like this shine a pretty damn clear light on Conrad's character. First, he thinks he is the federal government. If that isn't "going Washington" then I don't know what is. Second, he thinks providing money to someone makes them indebted to you for life -- so it seems that $150,000 bundled by Abramoff must have been good for quite a bit. All the money Burns got from oil companies meant he owed them the giant tax breaks he voted for.

Conrad Burns is bought and paid for. What's more, he is an advocate of the bribery system.

Burns has become everything he once fought against, he needs to go.