by Ken Toole | Feb 26, 2025 | E-City Beat Watch
In the last couple of weeks, city commissioners Rick Tryon and Joe McKenney have come out in strong defense of allowing local governments to control management of their various functions. But they kept on their blindfolds and didn’t name which political party is stifling local governments. Too bad both of them ignore the fact that the vast majority of the laws on the books which are strangling local governments came from conservative Republicans in the legislature. All of this, done in the name of reducing regulations and taxes, leaves cities, counties and school districts struggling.
McKenney Is Upset He Didn’t Get The Memo
McKenney bent over backwards to put a conservative polish in his blog post. Lamenting the anti-local government bills in this legislature, he wrote, “Last time I checked, conservatism was about keeping the government small and decisions local. Since when did ‘Big Government Knows Best’ become a conservative slogan? Did I miss the memo?”
McKenney didn’t miss the memo. Republican hostility to local governments hasn’t changed much over the years. Republicans in the legislature were pretty much the same during McKenney’s four terms in the Montana House of Representatives. Maybe he wasn’t paying attention. Or maybe his service on the city commission changed his opinion?
Tryon Piles On. . .But Never Mentions It’s The Republicans
Then there is Rick Tryon’s blog post on the same topic. Tryon’s ire is directed at Great Falls Republican Senator Jeremy Trebas’ SB 266, which takes certain planning decisions away from local governments. In his usual bombastic style, Tryon writes, “Hey, Great Falls, do you want Big Brother Helena to control how citizens in Great Falls choose to budget, zone our community, and manage our resources? I say, ‘Hell no!’”
In a report on legislative property tax bills, The Montana Free Press quoted Tryon saying, “I directly blame the Montana legislature for the property tax problem. And it’s strangling local government.” Tryon’s only half right. Governor Gianforte’s inaction in the face of inflationary property values in Montana, and then blaming local governments, is also a driver in the current property tax mess.
The Montana Free Press story went on to explain that HB 20 is one bill that seems to have “legs.” Great Falls area legislators supporting this bill are Buttrey, Fitzpatrick, Miner, Nikolakakos (George and Melissa), Tilleman, Gist and McKamey. These are all Republicans. The lone “no” vote so far in the process is Democrat Jane Weber.
It’s good to know Tryon and McKenney support local government authority and autonomy. But their effort to put that in the context of “conservative values” rings hollow. Truth is Republicans love playing “reduce regulation and cut taxes” politics. It’s great for getting elected, but not so good for actually managing city government. This is what you get when your rhetoric outpaces common sense.
by Ken Toole | Feb 20, 2025 | Elections
I wrote this February 25, 2011, 14 years ago. I wrote it in response to the drubbing democrats took in 2010, Obama’s first mid-term election. Since that time we have had more elections dominated by republican victories. Every time democrats lose we engage in self flagellation and hand wringing about needing a new “message”. Committees form, discussions follow, and fingers point. In the end we settle for the lowest common denominator and messages we think will attract the “moderate middle”. Clearly, that approach has failed us.
Dear Democratic Leaders,
I am Democratic base. Please feed me!!
I’m tired, weak and discouraged. I haven’t been fed in a very long time. Last election I just couldn’t muster the strength to get out to the polls, let alone write checks or volunteer. Please feed me!! I need red meat. I can’t survive on a diet of gun rights, tax cuts and developing natural resources. I don’t get excited about shooting wolves, or selling coal to China, or cutting the business equipment tax. And extending the Bush tax cuts and opposing the Dream Act gave me a stomach ache.
Republicans Don’t Do It This Way
The Republicans feed their base. They never miss a chance to drop a big t-bone on the plate. They stand up and talk about banning abortion, putting a pistol in every pocket and making gay people illegal. They smother the red meat with spices like deregulation, privatization and cutting taxes. I can still watch their base gnawing on the bones. They are so fat and sassy they sometimes bite each other because they are so darned energized. Why can’t you feed me?
I know, I know, you’re feeding me jobs, jobs, jobs. And that’s just fine, I suppose. . . .if you like bland oatmeal all day, every day. Of course we all like jobs but what is behind the problem? Why aren’t you talking about deregulated corporations out-sourcing work, the attack on labor unions and bankers sitting on piles of cash? What you are feeding me is more like day old bread than red meat.
What About Traditional Democratic Message?
I really liked it when you fed me things like helping senior citizens, protecting the environment, and making rich people pay their fair share of taxes. Now, that was really good stuff. It gave me a lot of strength and energy. It was good for my digestion.
A couple of years ago you gave me some really good appetizers. All the talk about reforming health care and addressing climate change really got me salivating for the main course. But when I sat down at the table I ended getting served gruel prepared by big special interest groups. . . .just like I had been getting for years.
Only Yellow Lines And Dead Skunks In The Middle Of The Road
You seem more interested in inviting those other guys to dinner than making sure I have enough to eat. You love using their recipes and serving their wine. Well, I don’t like their food and I don’t like them preparing the menu. In fact, I don’t like having them at our table. It gives me gas.
I know you think I’m peevish and demanding. You think I’m idealistic and don’t understand how to cook a good meal. That’s fine, but you still seem to want me in the kitchen all the time. What am I supposed to do there. . . .the dishes?
Please, Give Us Some Red Meat!
Put a menu in front of me with recipes made from the ingredients we both used to love so much. Put a thick steak on the grill exposing how the super rich are screwing the rest of us and cover it with a special sauce made with traditional Democratic values like standing up for the little guy, investing in education, and controlling big corporations. I can almost smell the sweet aroma now.
So feed me! I want to be there for you. I want to have the strength to help you carry the day. But I just can’t do it without some protein.
Ken Toole
With apologies to my vegetarian friends
by Ken Toole | Feb 16, 2025 | Guest Articles, Uncategorized
Senators Daines and Sheehy certainly can’t stand on principle when they can’t stand at all.
by Ken Toole | Feb 5, 2025 | Guest Articles
By Susan DeCamp
In 2008, I took an oath to the Constitution as a new Foreign Service Officer while standing under the flagpole in front of the Tactical Operations Center on a Provincial Reconstruction Team base in Farah, Afghanistan. I would go on to spend a total of 10 years in Afghanistan, working for USAID. It was my thing.
Fighting Poverty Under Fire In Afghanistan
As a USAID Development Officer, I lived on remote bases in containers, barracks, and on the Embassy compound. I have been under small arms fire, mortar fire, rocket fire, bombs, and the occasional earthquake. My military colleagues were the most intelligent, strategic and impressive people I have ever met in my life. We worked closely together to actualize counter insurgency initiatives based on the book written by General Petraeus. The military sought to protect the population from the Islamic terrorists as represented by the Taliban, ISIS and what have you. USAID sought to stabilize the country through poverty mitigation.This included: access to education for boys AND girls, access to healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure like roads and schools, government systems, and business support.
The Afghanistan president at the time, Hamid Karzai, insisted we call it reconstruction. In fact, it was building an entire economic system from scratch. (For a history of the Afghanistan conflict, read Ghost Wars by Steve Coll). We may have bitten off more than we could chew, but here is the most important point – these are the basic building blocks of a thriving, growing economy, any economy, anywhere.
Mission and Purpose of USAID
USAID is a “soft power” agency used by the government to head off potential military conflict and terrorist safe havens through the alleviation of poverty and ignorance. We were the “hearts and minds” approach that would hopefully promote democracy around the world, embrace diplomacy, and prevent our young people from being sent off to die in wars in foreign countries.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) was created in 1961 via executive order of President Kennedy. Its creation was based on the success of the Marshall Plan after World War II. It became its own agency in 1998 by an act of Congress. USAID serves as part of the executive branch of government, but it is Congress that provides the budget. USAID funding amounts to less than 1 percent of the total national budget. USAID personnel were posted alongside the military to keep them apprised of who was doing what, where, and when throughout the country. We were part of the counter insurgency (COIN) strategy adopted by the coalition of the willing – known as the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF).
Women’s Empowerment In Afghanistan
I managed a program in Afghanistan called “Promote.” Promote received a special appropriation of funds from Congress and was strictly for Afghan women’s empowerment projects. We were required to touch the lives of 75,000 Afghan women. Security was poor. Pakistan had been steadily sending Taliban, ISIS, and other terrorists into the country. (If you are interested, read the book The Wrong Enemy by Carlotta Gall).
I busted my chops making sure that all was above board with Promote. Having served for so long in the country, I knew most of the players, and I worked hard to make sure internal controls were in place and the projects were documented and effective.
A Special Inspector General With An Axe To Grind
In 2012 John Sopko was appointed Special Inspector General for Afghanistan. We had just about reached the end of the first year of Promote. This was the phase we called rollout, which entailed opening offices around the country and hiring over 90 percent Afghan staff to reach Afghan women. Sopko announced he would be auditing the program. It was the first year of a 5 year program, violating normal audit standards. He tortured us with endless meetings, demands for data, and began to issue his own press releases attacking USAID, and attacking Promote.
The lies came easily to Sopko. I spent time on the phone with Congressional staffers, debunking the lies. I was told by USAID leadership that I could not issue my own press release or correct the record. In the meantime, Promote clipped along doing some amazing work for Afghan women. Politico published an expose of Shopko’s behavior in 2016 titled, “The Donald Trump of inspector generals” https://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/john-sopko-afghanistan-reconstruction-goats-222418
Trump Handed Afghanistan To The Taliban
I was there when Trump sent McMaster to Kabul to seek an end to the continuing conflict. Ignoring McMaster’s advice, Trump sent his team to negotiate with the Taliban terrorists, ignoring the Afghan government we had spent blood and treasure to strengthen.
Trump was responsible for the deal that handed the country to the Taliban. He deliberately spat on the lives of American soldiers who had died and were disabled in the fight against the international threat of Taliban terrorism – just to make people think that we had failed. Lest we forget, Osama Bin Laden was operating out of Afghanistan to attack Americans. My heart was broken, as we knew what giving billions of dollars in US investment to the Taliban meant for Afghan women. Under the terrorist regime, the schools for girls were closed immediately. (See Politico, Sept. 17, 2020 “McMaster Rebukes Trump Over Taliban Talks”)
One More Page In The Republican Play Book
This is how it’s done, folks. These tactics also work on the Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, US Postal System, Social Security Administration, Medicare, etc. Republicans have been quietly gutting these important public support agencies, and lying about it, for years with their malicious political appointees who are only there to destroy. All because billionaires want even more power and do not want to pay taxes or contribute to the well being of our country. What takes centuries to build can be destroyed in days by evil, power seeking men and women.
by Ken Toole | Jan 22, 2025 | Legislature
On the last possible day and against the consensus of committee members. Sen. Jason Ellsworth, chair of the now defunct ‘judicial reform’ committee, inked an unnecessary contract with his Bitterroot pal, Bryce Eggleston.
My State Senator Jason Ellsworth recently was accused of wrongdoing by new Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell. Montana State News Bureau first reported that Sen. Jason Ellsworth pushed through a $170,000 no-bid contract to a crony from his telemarketing days.
Am I Too Harsh? Republican Leaders Don’t Think So.
Am I being too harsh here? Current Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell called it “(a) tremendous black eye to not just our party, but to the Senate and to the state.” Sen. Daniel Emrich, R-Great Falls, the co-chair of the same interim committee, said that it was made clear to Ellsworth that the committee did not want to contract out the work and that he felt “lied to,”. Former Senate President Jeff Essmann wrote on social media that it was a stain on the public trust and that Ellsworth should be expelled for it. Senate Judiciary Chair Barry Usher, R-Molt, said that an ethics investigation will be coming soon.
It All Starts With The Republican Attack On The Judiciary
Jason was the Montana Senate President and chair of the interim judicial oversight committee, that met for months last year, tasked by Republicans with strategizing bills to politicize Montana’s judiciary in the 2025 legislative session. As his last official act in both capacities, my State Senator finagled through a contract that would enrich his business associate Bryce Eggleston. The contract is for an analysis of 27 bills the committee has ready to introduce during the session to attack the judicial branch.
But, if you’ve got dirty work do, namely politicizing the judicial branch so they can ride roughshod over our rights to privacy and to a clean and healthful environment, you should at least do it with clean hands. But Jason’s urge to do well by doing bad was apparently too much for his colleagues.
Or Were They Mad Because Ellsworth Sided With Democrats?
Or was Jason being punished for siding with Democrats, along with 8 other Republicans, to vote for a motion to effectively scrap a plan for a new Executive Branch Review committee? Critics called it an attempt to manipulate committee assignments to maximize majority control in the Senate. Whatever the merits, it had the strong backing of the wildlings in the Montana Freedom Caucus, which is good enough for me to trust Democrats on this issue. Jason is calling it a “thinly-veiled political ploy” but has pulled his support for the contract saying it was a distraction from the good work of the committee and that his humiliated buddy doesn’t want to do it now anyway. Legislative Services Executive Director Jerry Howe said that the contract will now be cancelled.
I wonder if Jason had been more of a team player any of this would have come to light. After all, we are talking about people who wholeheartedly support Donald Trump. Regardless, it is always fun to damage political opponents when you have the goods, and it looks to me like they do. It turns out that Ellsworth originally put in a request for two contracts under $100,000, the limit under which sole source contracts must be noticed for 10 days. This raised red flags for legislative staffers as an attempt to get around the rule. Working with Ellsworth, the Legislative Services and Department of Administration staff worked quickly to merge the contracts. But the new contract of $170,000 was not noticed for the required 10 days. The Department of Administration has not responded as to why.
Also in as much of a hurry as Ellsworth and the DOA, Mr. Eggleston quickly registered his company, Agile Analytics, in December in order to receive a contract to do work for which he had no previous experience. For his part, Senator Regier stated; “It’s, I mean, utterly ridiculous for $170,000 for 27 bills,” Regier said. “That’s something my nephew could do.” No comment from Matt’s nephew. Combine this with the fact that the committee said they didn’t want an outside contract and Ellsworth agreed and then turned around did it anyway, and it’s pretty damning.
Ellsworth’s Slap On The Wrist From Our New Supreme Court Justice, Cory Swanson In 2021
If Jason Ellsworth and hinky behavior sounds familiar, you might remember that he was pulled over for driving 88 miles per hour through a construction zone in Broadwater County in 2021. Ellsworth proceeded to jump out of his car and harangue the officer about the law not applying because he was an important Montana legislator on important Montana legislative business, despite said Montana legislature not being in session. He threatened the officer with a call to Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen. Later charged with obstruction of justice, Broadwater County Attorney, Cory Swanson, longtime Republican activist and newly elected Chief of The Supreme Court slapped that wrist with a $350 fine and a one-year deferred sentence.
Perhaps Jason was correct in pointing out his Republican connections. After all, from reports he wasn’t maced and shackled at the scene, which law and order types might deem an appropriate response for such boorish behavior toward Montana’s finest. I also think that a Montana public servant purporting to act under the color of authority, endangering public employees and obstructing justice should have received more, but I can be naïve sometimes.
Then There Was That Restraining Order
Speaking of Trumpian behavior, in May of 2023 my State Senator was slapped with a temporary order for protection for his girlfriend. She alleged that he assaulted her and produced a Glock pistol which he challenged her to use on him while lying on top of her. For the record, Jason is a big guy. The girlfriend later dropped the petition for a permanent restraining order, pretty much saying that he was now leaving her alone. No comment here, other than me quoting the late Ross Perot: “sad, just sad”.
Full disclosure, I ran against Ellsworth in 2022 for the Senate seat. I often referred to him as more of Nixonian character than a Trumpian one. He is someone willing to rouse the right wing conspiracists but not credulous enough to believe them. Jason also fits the Nixonian mode in the tinge, if not the taint of corruption, perfectly complementing the self-regard of a former scrappy telemarketing entrepreneur and hustler.
Welcome to The New Order
No doubt heartened by his success riding the plebs to patrician status as Senate President last session, Jason’s future looked bright. But with the rise of the MAGA/Q-Anon/John Birch Society Republicans, its unlikely to find sympathy for a little Trumpian style corruption unless you toe the party line.
