Kennedy shirks commish job to sling mud
The Montana Republican Party had an interesting item today about Bill Kennedy. You probably won't get to read this in the papers tomorrow, so we've filtered it down to the good parts:
"Yellowstone County Commissioner Bill Kennedy today skipped an important 10 a.m. meeting of the Yellowstone County Commissioners in Billings in favor of appearing at his own political press conference at 11 a.m. in Helena."
"'Bill Kennedy’s endless political ambition is starting to get the best of him, and unfortunately it seems the citizens of Yellowstone County are the ones paying the price,” said Montana Republican Party Executive Director Chris Wilcox. “Montanans deserve public servants who will do their jobs in an up front and honorable fashion, not someone who is just waiting for the next opportunity for self-promotion and partisan attacks.'"
"Kennedy launched a rambling, baseless attack against Montana’s Congressman Denny Rehberg on SCHIP – the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which Congressman Rehberg has consistently supported for years. Contrary to Mr. Kennedy’s claims, Rehberg never 'voted against SCHIP' nor did he call SCHIP 'extremist political ideology'. What Rehberg did do was vote against the Nancy Pelosi/Bill Kennedy plan which would have given SCHIP benefits to illegal aliens, would have enrolled adults in SCHIP at the expense of needy kids, and it would have cut Medicare programs used by thousands of Montana seniors. In fact, the Nancy Pelosi/Bill Kennedy plan was so extreme that it was rejected by Montana Democrat Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester, the U.S. Senate and a joint Senate-House Conference Committee."
"'It's tells folks a lot about Bill Kennedy that his first real act as a candidate was to neglect his duties as County Commissioner in order to launch a false political attack. Montanans rightly expect better of their candidates for Congress. Bill Kennedy cannot continue to shortchange the taxpayers in Yellowstone County by neglecting his duties in an effort to quench his insatiable appetite for political office,' said Wilcox."
"The plan that was ultimately passed by Congress and sent to the President is the same plan Rehberg said he would support in an op-ed widely distributed in Montana in August. Rehberg said in August that the Senate bill was better than the Pelosi/Kennedy plan. Rehberg kept his word to the people of Montana when he voted for the compromise SCHIP bill in September."
"'If Bill Kennedy wants to be a Hillary Clinton clone when it comes to health-care that’s up to him,' said Wilcox. 'Congressman Rehberg will continue to work with both Democrats and Republicans to see that the centrist-compromise SCHIP bill that Denny has long supported is signed into law.'"
Carter
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Reader Comments (17)
Is the party seriously trying to link Bill Kennedy with Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi? That tactic didn't work so well for us last time because everybody in Montana knows it's ridiculous. Maybe it's time for some new leadership...
Quick question...Was there any coverage of Kennedy's press conference? I didn't see any in the Gazette or the IR. The guy really knows how to make a splash, huh? Not!
Rehberg vs. Kennedy: Just like Rehberg vs. Velasquez, but not as close.
Wouldn't you love to be in Denny's position? Kennedy reminds me of the Pillsbury Dough Boy, my guess is Rehberg takes it with 62% of the vote!
Just a reminder - let's try to keep our comments on the subject matter at hand, i.e. please don't poke fun at any particular candidate's resemblances.
The point Leo is not so much that Bill is similar to Hillary, but that he is an elected public offical who is neglecting his duties so that he can promote his campagin.
Isn't it a little hypocritical of the republican party to point fingers about missing important meetings. Their own Chair works for Congressman Rehberg AND serves as the Chair of the republican party...I am sure he has missed some meetings for political events as well. I'm not making a judgment, just saying I think the argument is not very credible.
I don't think Rehberg has missed a single vote while in Congress - How has Kennedy missed in his various campaigns?
Actually, Dennis has missed 8 votes in the 109th Congress. You call that representation???
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/109/house/vote-missers/
Lueschbeg -
I think that's pretty darn good representation. Rehberg missed 8 votes...out of 1213. That's seven-tenths of a percent that he missed.
Max Baucus missed five times as many votes - 22 of 645.
Are you going to be fair and balanced in your criticisms, or are you just another partisan hack?
Lueschbeg
This is actually the 110th Congress that is currently in session. The 109th Congress ran from 1/3/2005 through 1/3/2007 (thanks Wikipedia).
So you’re complaining that Rehberg missed 0.7% of the votes over the course of 2 years? Seriously the guy only missed 8 in two years and 5 of those votes came on back to back days.
That seems like a pretty impressive record to me - especially compared to a guy like Kennedy who is willing to skip out on his job at the drop of a hat to run off to Helena so he can stand in front of a TV camera for 5 minutes.
MT Red
Your post said, and I quote, "I don't think Rehberg has missed a single vote while in Congress". You were wrong. He missed 8 in the 109th alone. I passed no judgement other than letting you know your comment was factually inaccurate. Apparently Carter is going to go negative on me for keeping this place honest. I guess I would too if I didnt have the facts on my side.
Lueschbeg
I guess I interpreted your comment: “You call that representation???” as an implied criticism. However, you are correct I thought Rehberg hadn’t missed a vote but after serving 6 years in Congress he’s missed a few. Kennedy, has now run for 2 different statewide offices while the taxpayers of Yellowstone County foot the bill. I tried to look and see how many votes Kennedy has missed (since he took office as Commissioner about the same time Rehberg was elected to Congress) but couldn’t really find much.
Like I said before I think Denny’s record looks pretty good when you put it up next to a guy like Kennedy who has no problem blowing off his actual job to get a little media time.
MT Red
I guess the point of this whole website is to share your "thoughts" which you do quite well. I however, like to stick with the facts. Since you have no facts on which to hang your hat here, I think we can close the case on this issue.
Fact – Bill Kennedy skipped out on his job in a poor attempt to get his name in the paper.
Fact – Bill Kennedy wants a job other than the one he has now.
Fact – Bill Kennedy looks kind of like the Bob’s Big Boy
Fact – Bill Kennedy’s single largest contributor is Max Baucus (via his Glacier PAC)
Hey Carter, are you gonna slap MT Red's hands for saying Kennedy looks like Bob's Big Boy?
The voters of Montana do not care how many times Rehberg was not in D.C. to vote yes on re-naming a federal courthouse in Alabama, nor should they.
The job has an expectation to go where you are needed when you are needed. That means for important votes and committee work, they want Denny back in D.C. doing his job. On weekends, recesses, or important events in the state, they want to see Denny here doing his job by listening to his constituents and focusing on how he can better represent Montana. When his committee assignments require him to be overseas inspecting military bases and meeting soldiers, they expect him to do that because it is his job.
In short, they expect him to go where the greatest need is and where he will do the most good at that moment. And Denny has shown very good sense in determining when those needs and opportunities arise. As a general rule, he doesn't like to miss votes, but he will do so for a soldier's funeral in Montana, for example.
Now let's talk about Bill Kennedy. Admittedly, I've met the guy only a couple of times and I don't live in Yellowstone County, so I'm not aware of how many times he's skipped out on important stuff. But if his record shows he has a penchant for travel away from his constituents and their needs, you have to wonder whether he is going to spend his congressional recesses in California instead of Montana if he is elected.
So don't dismiss this. It is an important issue and one which voters should use to determine if he is a good candidate for Congress. But let's not allow political rhetoric to pull us outside the bounds of common sense.