Mont. Democrats Get Help Criticizing Burns

[Judi Lynn]

Mont. Democrats Get Help Criticizing Burns

By SARAH COOKE
The Associated Press
Monday, August 8, 2005; 6:49 PM

HELENA, Mont. -- The Montana Democratic Party _ aided by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee _ is airing a television ad criticizing Republican Sen. Conrad Burns for his dealings with a GOP lobbyist who is under federal investigation.

The DSCC contribution on the ad referring to lobbyist Jack Abramoff was its first salvo in the Senate ad wars that are just warming up. Republicans aired an ad criticizing West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd late last month.


Burns is running for his fourth term senator and four Democrats have entered the race. His seat is one of 33 Senate seats up for election in 2006.

The Burns campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee said the ad is false and asked TV stations to stop airing it.
(snip/...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/08/AR2005080801021.html

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Senator Conrad Burns

[swag]

1. Here's the ad

http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.download.akamai.com/8082/video/20050808_dscc_smelltest.mov

Burns should be a prime target for DSCC. Either John Morrison or Jon Tester could clean Burns' broken clock with the right support.

[DURHAM D]

2. Small world - I live in North Carolina and I know his daughter. n/t

[swag]

3. Did/Does she go to school there?

Conrad used to give the ag report on Montana TV at 5 in the morning.

[DURHAM D]

7. No - she is a medical doctor and her practice is in some town

near Durham. She hangs out in Durham. She went to medical school back home - some sort of multi-state medical school program. Don't know why she came here. But she does all the convention stuff and loves the Bush twins.

[swag]

4. Son of a gun, it's on TPM.

Kicked and recommended:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_08_07.php#006256

[swag]

5. The history of Burns and Abramoff

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/04/17/build/opinion/30-gazette-opinion.inc

Gazette opinion: Burns must uphold higher ethical standards

S. Sen. Conrad Burns has been on the defensive recently, explaining his involvement with a Michigan Indian tribe's school funding and his connections to a Washington, D.C., lobbyist who is being investigated by Congress and the FBI.

The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan owns a ritzy casino resort that boasts 4,700 slots - the most gambling machines between Las Vegas and Michigan, according to the tribe's Web site. The resort business has allowed the tribe to make $70,000 annual payments to each of its members and to hire Jack Abramoff as its lobbyist.

Abramoff and the Michigan tribe and other Abramoff tribal casino clients contributed more than $130,000 to a political action committee formed by U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., according to news reports in the Washington Post and Rollcall Report.

One thing the tribe wanted was millions of federal tax dollars to build a new school. Despite lobbying by Michigan's two U.S. senators, the U.S. Department of the Interior said the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe's proposal didn't meet requirements for federal funding. That program apparently was for tribes that didn't have lavish casinos or $70,000 per capita payments.

But after Burns became chairman of the Senate appropriations committee that controls federal spending on Indian affairs, the tribe got a $3 million school appropriation. . .

[warrens]

6. I was in Montana in March

Hard though it may be to believe, that state may go blue next time. There ain't no love for Bush or the GOP there anymore. CAFTA did THAT for sure, now. Not to mention Bush supporting reopening the Canadian border to cattle. That's R-CALF country, and they may be conservatives, but they're populists first. The only place where I told Bush voters they blew it and they said, y'all got a point there.

[usregimechange]

8. Who is running against him?

[Greeby]

9. When I hear "Mr. Burns" called out on the roll call

I think, how did this guy get a Senate seat?