Did I miss something or did Conscience Caucus member Rep. Denny Rehberg (R) of Montana stay mum while squiring President Bush around Montana? Last we checked in with the congressman’s office, his spokesman Brad Keena told us the congressman was “open-minded” about privatization.
I see here where Sen. Conrad Burns (R), who I guess isn’t exactly what you’d call a centrist, said he was “intrigued” by Bush’s privatization plan. “Social Security is still a very, very important part of the retirement of a lot of seniors in Montana,” he went on to say. “So we’ll listen and we’ll look and we’ll probe … and see what is in it for the next generation.”
Frankly, it hadn’t even occurred to me that President Bush couldn’t count on Burns as a phase-out man. But what about Rehberg? I can’t see where he was quoted anywhere today in any paper even though he spent a good part of the day traveling at the center of the national news bubble and he’s one of three members of the Montana congressional delegation. Maybe I’m missing some comment to a local radio or TV station. And if there was, I’d be much obliged if you’d let me know. But as near as I can tell, Rehberg didn’t answer any questions about the president’s plan at all. And I figure there would have been some press interest had he been inclined to do so.
Everyone’s reporting, rightly, that Sen. Baucus (D) made clear he’s not going to support President Bush on phasing out Social Security. But isn’t the story here that President Bush just won this state with 59% of the vote in November. He went to campaign in the state to support his new Social Security privatization plan. And he couldn’t get any members of the state’s congressional delegation to endorse his plan — and two of them are from his own party.
Oddly enough, in its reporting, CNN makes no mention of this — another example of the dire need for a blog devoted entirely to documenting the decline and Foxification of this once proud network.
