Jon Tester for U.S. Senate

Senator Burns ran into a group of Hotshot firefighters over the weekend and berated their work, calling it a “poor job” fighting fire in Montana.

This after the firefighters contained a 92,000 acre sagebrush fire near Billings. Hotshots are “elite teams of professional wildland firefighters” who take on the difficult task of controlling wildfires each fire season. More from the U.S. Forest Service:

All crews require that personnel be available 24-hours per day, 7 days a week during the fire season, which typically last six months. Fire assignments may require IHC members to be away from home for several weeks at a time. The crews travel, primarily in the West, by truck, van or plane. To get to the more remote fire sites, crews either hike or are flown in by helicopter. Crew members pack all the water and supplies needed for work shifts that frequently exceed eight hours, and may be 12 hours or longer. Crews sleep on the ground and are lucky to get a shower every couple of days.

An employee of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation responded to an “altercation” between Burns and the firefighters at the Billings airport. From the employee’s report:

???The toughest part of the conversation was the point where the senator was critical of a firefighter sitting across from us in the gate area,??? Rosenthal??s report reads. ???I offered to the senator that our firefighters make around $8 to $12 an hour and time-and-a-half for overtime. He seemed a bit surprised that it wasn??t higher.???

How out of touch is our Junior Senator — and why the surprise? In October 2003, Senator Burns voted against an amendment to the Healthy Forests Restoration act that would have authorized funding for firefighting costs and other projects. [S. Amendment 2031, 10/30/2003, #421]

Jon Tester is on the road this week for his “Meet Montana’s Main Street Tour”, talking to Montanans across the state about issues and his campaign for U.S. Senate.

Yesterday, Jon kicked off the tour, speaking to a crowd at Park and Ponder Cafe near Gibson Park. Folks there were concerned about the budget defecit, energy independence, and earmarks for pork projects.

Today, Jon was in Missoula and Corvallis meeting with voters at a listening session in each community. Jon also stopped by Caras Park for Missoula’s “Out-to-Lunch” event with Mayor John Engen. New West has the story from Missoula.

Tomorrow the campaign heads for the Flathead for meetings with local businesses and other area events.

Stay tuned for photos from the road and more updates.

New Survey USA numbers today show Senator Burns has the lowest net job approval in the Senate. Only 37% of Montanans approve of Senator Burns’ job as U.S. Senator, while a whopping 57% disapprove, the highest in the Senate.

Fewer than 1 in 3 women and moderates approve of Burns’ job performance.

Visit Survey USA for more info on their tracking polls.

Delivering for Montana isn’t a done deal?

It seems that the press release is all she wrote on millions in earmarks for Montana that Senator Burns is claiming credit for.

According to Jonathan Allen’s piece in the Hill this morning, the upcoming election coupled with some GOP infighting could stall Burns’ bacon in the Senate until after the election.

But that hasn’t stopped Burns from prematurely promoting the projects.

The bill is not going to be up before the August recess and September is still ???up in the air,??? according to a GOP aide.

Whether the bill gets a vote on the floor may not matter much to Burns, who, as one Appropriations staffer noted, already ???put out the press release??? on the projects.

Taking credit before credit is due.

I like E. J. Dionne’s explanation at Working for Change best:

OK, all incumbents brag. But from Craney Island, Va., to Cedarville, Ohio, to Pompeys Pillar in Montana, most Republican senators in tight races want to get your mind off that irrelevant stuff — you know, President Bush, Iraq, the deficit, oil prices — and on to those nice little things they’ve gotten that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad big government to do for you.

U.S. Senate Candidate Jon Tester, between harvests on his family farm in Big Sandy, continues his campaign this week by hitting the highways and hearing from Montanans up and down the state.

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